Kumquat May, I'll Always Love You - Hardcover

Cynthia D. Grant

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0689311982 ISBN 13: 9780689311987

Publisher: Atheneum, 1986

Synopsis

Abandoned by her mother, Livvy decides she is smart and self-reliant enough to live by herself, if she can only keep her situation a secret.

About this title

From School Library Journal:

Grade 8-12 Livvy's widowed mother wandered out of Livvy's life two years before , when Livvy was 14. With the help of her friend, Rosella, Livvy has been able to keep her neighbors in the town of Kumquat from realizing that Luna Lee is gone. Because she has a car, a small income, a big isolated house and a canny ability to maintain her mother's routine, Livvy has managed to avoid the dreaded fate of living with her pompous uncle and his unpleasant family. When an old school friend, Raymond Mooney, moves back to town, his presence threatens Livvy's friendship with Rosella and, worse, threatens the fragile network of lies Livvy has created. Despite the too-clever title and the too-smooth-to-be-believed Raymond, this is an engaging and unusual survival story. Livvy is a staunch and likable heroine who makes the very best she can of a life in shambles. Her realization that no one pays much attention to anyone else works all too well for most of the townspeople, but she is fortunate in her friendships with Rosella and with a gruff elderly man named Dave. While the ending seems at once contrived and too open-ended, the novel will hold the interest of young readers who have wondered if they could make it on their own. Barbara Chatton, College of Education, University of Wyoming, Laramie
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Publishers Weekly:

Olivia is a senior in high school. Two years ago her mother Luna Lee walked out the door to buy some margarine and didn't come back. Olivia's father is dead, and she can't stand the idea of living with her bigoted uncle and his family, so she pretends to the whole town that her mother is still around. This is not as difficult as one might expect. She buys her mother's weekly supply of romance novels and impersonates her on the phone when the need arises, and the self-absorbed people of Kumquat never seem to notice when they last saw Luna Lee. Though Olivia lives as an independent adult, Grant is quick to point out that the privileges are sometimes outweighed by the costsloneliness, isolation, even despair. Olivia's romance with Raymond, a friend from childhood, falls apart when their interests conflict. Though Raymond's character is a bit caricatured, humor and pathos are well mixed here, and some of Grant's descriptive passages are lovely.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Atheneum
• Publication date: 1986
• ISBN 10: 0689311982
• ISBN 13: 9780689311987
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 206