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Summary
Summary
Perry's mother and father are busy people ... they're impatient, they're tired, they get cross easily. And they think that only children, like Perry, should be kept busy. On Saturday mornings Perry and her father visit her gran, Honora Lee, at the Santa Lucia rest home, but Gran never remembers them. 'Who is that man?' Honora Lee asks when Perry's father leaves the room. After movement class is abruptly cancelled, Perry is allowed to go to Santa Lucia on Thursday afternoons. She discovers her Gran has an unconventional interest in the alphabet, so Perry decides to make an alphabet book with the help of Honora and the others. Soon everyone is interested in Perry's book project. The ACB With Honora Lee unfolds with characteristic warmth, quirky, surprising humor and a rich cast of 'residents'. The story is a meditation on kindness and patience and acceptance; that of the very young and the very old. It's a story that will resonate with echoes of recollection for many -- from Perry's endearing perspective on the adult world to the embracing kindness of those who care for the elderly.
Author Notes
Kate De Goldi was born in 1959 in Christchurch. Kate launched her career in 1988 by winning the American Express Short Story Award, and three years later won the BNZ/Katherine Mansfield Short Story Award. Her first novel, Like You, Really, was published in 1994 under the pseudonym Kate Flannery. Her stories are about contemporary teenagers and their struggle to craft their identity both inside and outside the family dynamic, are set in her native South Island, in Canterbury or Westland. Kate has written three books for young adults: Sanctuary (1996), which won the New Zealand Post Senior Fiction Award and the Esther Glen medal; Love, Charlie Mike, which was short-listed in the 1998 New Zealand Post Children's Book Awards, and Closed, Stranger, which took out the Honours Award in the same competition (2000).
Kate is a regular reviewer of children's books on National Radio's Kim Hill programme. Her books for young adults are published internationally and regularly feature on school curricula in both New Zealand and across the Tasman. In 2015 her title From the Cutting Room of Barney Kettle, made the New Zealand best Seller List.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (4)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 4-7-Elderly Honora Lee lives in the Santa Lucia rest home. Suffering from dementia, she rarely recognizes her granddaughter when she visits. But Honora's pithy comments, old-fashioned sayings, and bossing of the other residents intrigue and amuse Perry, who decides to create an alphabet book that will bring some order and understanding to the residents. Her book becomes an "ACB"-a lovingly drawn, mixed-up alphabet reflecting the lives and characters of the staff and residents. Nine-year-old Perry is an endearing character, a quirky, curious only child who lives a lonely life. Her parents put their energies into their professional lives and middle-class pursuits, and Perry spends her time at afterschool activities and with her nanny, Nina. It is not surprising that she tries to create a family by spending time with her grandmother. Despite the sadness and confusion of the rest home, she finds friendship and caring from the residents and the committed staff. Like Perry, the book itself is an original, with quirky, full-color illustrations that are fitting but unusual interpretations of the text. The subject matter and the author's gently bemused style of writing won't have wide child appeal; adult readers are the better audience.-Michelle Anderson, Tauranga City Libraries, New Zealand (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
New Zealand writer De Goldi's (The 10 PM Question) story of an only child's determined efforts to know and love her grandmother deserves a place in the pantheon of quiet, word-of-mouth classics. Perry's mother, a psychologist, has the nine-year-old scheduled up to the hilt ("Monday was piano with Gabriel.... Wednesday was clarinet with James"); her father jets off to conferences overseas. When Thursday's activity is cancelled, Perry proposes weekly visits to the nursing home where Gran is hospitalized with dementia, and a strange and touching friendship unfolds. Perry, who's as good at drawing as she is hopeless at everything else, begins assembling the alphabet book of the title-Gran's name is Honora Lee-and sets down with beguiling honesty all she sees at the nursing home ("W is for Walking Stick, which Melvyn uses as a Weapon"). Over time, it becomes clear that Gran's inability to recognize people does not mean that her life is any less precious or noble. Perry is funny and bewitching, and all the other characters, even the walk-ons, are equally engaging. O'Brien's curious diagram-illustrations pay appropriate tribute to Perry's admiration for the unconventional. Ages 10-up. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Horn Book Review
Nine-year-old Perry, an only child, spends Thursday afternoons with her grandmother, Honora Lee, who lives at the Santa Lucia nursing home and suffers from dementia. With Honora Lee's help, Perry writes and illustrates an alphabet book about the residents. Fans of middle grade novels with quirky female protagonists will enjoy this story and its stylish color illustrations, which suit the mood of the text. (c) Copyright 2014. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Booklist Review
Only-child Perry is overscheduled piano lessons, clarinet lessons, after-school tutoring, and dance but when one of her weekday afternoons opens up, she decides that she will spend it with her grandmother, Honora Lee, at her nursing home. Honora's senility is fairly advanced, and she can be cantankerous, but Perry seems unphased. At first her parents are skeptical, but determined Perry has made up her mind. Hoping to find something she and her gran can bond over, Perry notices Honora's obsession with spelling and decides to illustrate an alphabet book using her help. Over the course of the next several months, smart and observant Perry narrates in a matter-of-fact tone as she gets to know her gran and the nursing home residents by writing down things about them for each letter of the alphabet though thanks to the scatterbrained residents, her abecedary is fittingly all out of order. De Goldi's (The 10 P.M. Question, 2010) quiet story, illustrated with O'Brien's lovely full-color abstract drawings, tells a moving tale of patience, compassion, and family.--Hunter, Sarah Copyright 2014 Booklist
