Radio Girl

by Carol Brendler

Overview

Can a girl from a middle-class Irish Catholic family living in Newark, New Jersey, in 1938 find fame and fortune (or even a job) as a radio star? Tune in to this unforgettable historical novel to find out. Poignant, often hilarious, it's the story of a family in crisis. Just as artful deception, smoke and mirrors characterize radio reality, so lies, secrets, and profound misunderstandings mark fourteen-year-old Cece Maloney's life: her secret job at a radio station, a cheating father, an aunt who may be romantically involved with the parish priest, a boy-crazed best friend, and a ham radio operator and would-be soldier both lying to their parents. The worlds collide on the night of Orson Welles's famous "The War of the Worlds" broadcast. As thousands flee in panic from the alleged Martian invasion, Cece must expose the truth about the radio hoax and confront the truth about her own and her family's dishonesty.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780823430093
Publisher:	Holiday House
Publication date:	08/01/2013
Sold by:	Penguin Random House Publisher Services
Format:	NOOK Book
Pages:	224
Lexile:	670L (what's this?)
File size:	1 MB
Age Range:	10 - 14 Years

About the Author

Carol Brendler is the author of Winnie Finn, Worm Farmer, a picture book illustrated by Ard Hoyt. She has a master's degree in writing for children and young adults from the Vermont College of Fine Arts. When she was writing this, her first novel, she immersed herself in the popular culture of 1938: watching movies Cece might have seen, reading magazines, listening to music and old radio programs. She went roller-skating at an old-fashioned rink, tried to learn to dance the Lindy Hop, and continues to hunt for the best Brooklyn-style egg cream to be had in the Chicago area where she lives.

Editorial Reviews

09/16/2013
The year is 1938, and 14-year-old redhead Cece Maloney dreams of becoming a glamorous radio actress alongside the likes of Orson Welles, Ursula Parker, and Mickey Rooney. Her father, a respected sound artist, fails to make good on his promise to bring Cece to work with him at the Mutual Broadcasting System studios, so she sneakily hops the ferry to New York City on her own. At CBS, Cece works her way up the ladder from a weekend job in the mailroom to a whistler in a commercial, a typist in the writers’ room, and then to Ursula’s assistant. But drama inevitably erupts at her Newark, N.J., home as a result of bad luck, family secrets, and Cece’s misjudgments. In her first novel, picture book author Brendler (Winnie Finn, Worm Farmer) presents 1930s New York City in all of its majesty and passionately conveys Cece’s desire to perform. The author skillfully employs the slang of the time to create atmosphere while remarking on radio’s significant influence on both individuals and the larger world. Ages 10–14. Agent: Ammi-Joan Paquette, Erin Murphy Literary Agency. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

09/01/2013
Gr 5–7—New Jerseyite Cecelia Maloney is a girl with a plan. She wants to be a radio star and work in New York City just like her father, a sound-effects technician, even though her mother disapproves of her being in show business. The epitome of moxie, Cece won't let anything stop her from realizing her dream to be famous by her next birthday, even if that involves "sinning." She skips church, lies to everyone but her best friends, and steals transportation money from her family's rainy-day jar. Her good-natured pluck lands her a part-time job as a copygirl at CBS and an encounter with her idol, Orson Welles. Excitement over her budding career prevents her from picking up signals of trouble between her parents. Life at home and work collide in a twofold climax: Cece learns of her father's affair with a radio starlet, and when Welles's "War of the Worlds" broadcast panics the city, Cece must confess how she knows it is a hoax. Debut novelist Brendler has created a funny, appealing protagonist with expressions full of the hyperbole one would expect from a 14-year-old with a penchant for melodrama: "his voice would broadcast itself into my heart." This engaging, detailed novel vividly depicts Depression-era lifestyles and the world of old-time radio. The best feature is a fresh take on the 1938 broadcast for readers familiar with the event and an intriguing introduction for those who are new to it.—Marybeth Kozikowski, Sachem Public Library, Holbrook, NY

School Library Journal

2013-09-01
Cecelia Maloney ("Cece…rhymes with peace"), 14, lives in Newark, N.J., in 1938 above Loomis Hardware and below the Loomis family. Her adored Pop is a radio sound-effects man, and she wants nothing more than to be in radio, too. Although she cons Pop into signing her working papers, she finds herself lying to her Ma and practicing deception at an ever-increasing level. She sneaks into New York City, talks her way into a Saturday copy girl's job at Columbia, meets glamorous radio folk like Orson Welles (on whom she has a huge crush), and narrates it all in her starry-eyed, Depression-era teen voice. Cece is certain of her impending radio stardom and so completely misses her mother's worry, her father's erratic behavior and their poverty. First novelist Brendler has worked extremely hard at getting the setting, slang and tone of the late 1930s, but her characterizations are disappointingly one-note. Cece's Ma is long-suffering, her best friend is a boy-chaser, an aspiring young reporter who befriends Cece is earnest; Cece's note is that she is completely self-involved and naïve as heck. The climax utilizes Orson Welles' War of the Worlds broadcast to unravel all the secrets and lies. Despite intimations of drunkenness, adultery and the coming war, Cece is as wholesome as a glass of milk, if as oblivious and self-centered as any teen then or now. (Historical fiction. 10-14)

Kirkus Reviews

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