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Powell's Q&A, Q&A | June 29, 2009

Janna Cawrse Esarey: IMG Powell's Q&A: Janna Cawrse Esarey

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"I fell in love with Crosby, Stills, and Nash's song 'Southern Cross' when I was fifteen. By the time I got to college, 'I'm going to sail around the world someday' was sort of my pickup line." Continue »
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A Girl Named Zippy: Growing Up Small in Mooreland, Indiana

by Haven Kimmel

A Girl Named Zippy: Growing Up Small in Mooreland, Indiana Cover

Synopses & Reviews

Review:

"Kimmel's smooth, impeccably humorous prose evokes her childhood as vividly as any novel....The truths of childhood are rendered in lush yet simple prose." Publishers Weekly

Review:

"Her story is filled with good humor, fine storytelling, and acute observations of small town life." Library Journal

Review:

"Fresh, funny, delightful, and very amusing." Kirkus Reviews

Review:

"Droll and distinctive... unerring in relating the universal smallness of a rambunctious yet thoughtful child." Entertainment Weekly

Synopsis:

When Haven Kimmel was born in 1965, Mooreland, Indiana, was a sleepy little hamlet of three hundred people. Nicknamed Zippy for the way she would bolt around the house, this small girl was possessed of big eyes and even bigger ears. In this witty and lovingly told memoir, Kimmel takes readers back to a time when small-town America was caught in the amber of the innocent postwar period- people helped their neighbors, went to church on Sunday, and kept barnyard animals in their backyards.

Laced with fine storytelling, sharp wit, dead-on observations, and moments of sheer joy, Haven Kimmel's straight-shooting portrait of her childhood gives us a heroine who is wonderfully sweet and sly as she navigates the quirky adult world that surrounds Zippy.

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What Our Readers Are Saying

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Average customer rating based on 2 comments:
mariposamarie, May 9, 2008 (view all comments by mariposamarie)
"My mother said she was a 120 pound woman, but she kept herself wrapped in fat to avoid bruising."- these and other zingers keep this book light and cheery. Kimmel writes like a comedian, but has the ability to cover serious issues. This is a great book.
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Marie Angell, July 5, 2007 (view all comments by Marie Angell)
This book is the perfect antidote to intense, traumatic memoirs (with their fluid approach to the truth).

It is a walk down memory lane for those of us who grew up in that era, instructive insight for those who didn't. If you lived in a small town (even if it wasn't as small as Mooreland), there is much to recognize here. If you didn't, you may be surprised at the similarities as well as the differences.

Kimmel does an impressive job of showing her childhood from her own perspective, but I do have to question if she was really that precocious. Although she leaves the reader wondering about a good many things, it is, after all, a characteristic of the young to not really understand grownup issues.

Kimmel is also quite brilliant at weaving together moments so that the book reads much like a novel, but without apparent artifice. It is a very natural telling.

A thoroughly excellent book, far above average for this genre.
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Product Details

ISBN:
9780767915052
Subtitle:
Growing Up Small in Mooreland, Indiana
Author:
Kimmel, Haven
Publisher:
Broadway Books
Location:
New York, NY
Subject:
General
Subject:
Women
Subject:
City and town life
Subject:
Girls
Subject:
Regional Subjects - Midwest
Subject:
Childhood Memoir
Subject:
Mooreland
Subject:
Kimmel, Haven - Childhood and youth
Subject:
Mooreland (Ind.)
Edition Description:
1st Broadway Books trade paperback ed.
Series Volume:
80
Publication Date:
September 2002
Binding:
Paperback
Language:
English
Illustrations:
Yes
Pages:
304
Dimensions:
8.10x5.21x.66 in. .51 lbs.
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