Module 4: Criss Cross, Newbery 2006

Citation
Perkins, L.  (2005).  Criss Cross.  New York: Greenwillow Books.

Summary
Lynne Rae Perkins' Criss Cross tells the story of Debbie, Hector, and Lenny, three junior-high students, as they tackle the hurdle of identity during adolescence.  Their three stories weave in and out of the narrative, only to coalesce finally at a neighborhood luau with the reappearance of Debbie's necklace.  The book contains Perkins' own pen-and-ink illustrations.

Impression
First of all, I loved this book and its subtle humor (a passage on the sanitary napkin industry, for example, made me laugh until my sides ached).  Perkins has a knack for communicating poignant moments without being maudlin.  The imagery, analogies, and keen observations she incorporates into Criss Cross will stay with me as examples of excellent writing.  However, what lingers with me after reading this book is Perkins' characters.  Debbie, Hector, Lenny, their friends, and their acquaintances are rendered with care.  Perkins paints even the neighborhood jock, Dan Persik, with shades of complexity as he plays with girls' hearts, steals the attention of Hector's crush, insensitively occupies bus seats, and forthrightly makes a man who lost his legs during war feel comfortable at a bus stop.  The way that the characters try to connect with one another -- sometimes succeeding, sometimes failing, but always trying -- communicates a deep and resonant humanity which will touch the heart and mind of willing readers.

Review
Hepperman, C.  (2005).  Criss cross [book review].  Horn Book Magazine, 81(5), 585-586.  Retrieved from EBSCOhost

Catching fireflies in a jar, fourteen-year-old Debbie (first met in Perkins’s spectacular debut novel All Alone in the Universe, rev. 9/99) watches the bugs’ “glow parts go on and off,” appeasing her guilt over capturing them by convincing herself that “once they were free, their small, basic brains
would . . . have no memory of being imprisoned.”
Perkins’s wonderfully contemplative and relaxed yet captivating second novel, again illustrated with her own perfectly idiosyncratic spot art, is a collection of fleeting images and sensations—some pleasurable, some painful, some a mix of both—from her ensemble cast’s lives. Like All Alone in the Universe, the story is set in a 1970s small town, but teen readers won’t have to be aware of the time period to feel connected to Debbie, Hector, Lenny, and the rest as the third-person narrative floats back and forth between their often humorous, gradually evolving perspectives. The book’s title refers to a radio show that the neighborhood teens listen to on Saturday evenings; on a thematic level, it also refers to those barely perceptible moments of missed communication between a boy and a girl, a parent and a child, when “something might have happened” but didn’t. In keeping with Perkins’s almost Zen-like tone, such flubbed opportunities are viewed as unfortunate but not tragic. “Maybe it was another time that their moments would meet.” Like a lazy summer day, the novel induces that exhilarating feeling that one has all the time in the world.

Suggestions for Use
I must say that I am hard-pressed to say how this book should be "used" in the library setting.  It is the sort of book which deserves to be savored in some cozy spot.  It would definitely be a book I would highlight in a display showcasing more recent Newbery winner.  I would find some student readers to pioneer a reading of this book and get their reviews on it, as well.  I could see it figuring prominently in a book club discussion of the effectiveness of illustrations in novels.  I think it might be fun for students inclined to do so to verbally sketch out an event in their own lives and to provide accompanying illustrations in the same style.