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Summary
Summary
Henry and Zelda are stunned to discover that their favorite teacher, Miss Applebaum, won't be back at school teaching science. In fact, Miss Applebaum hasn't very long to live. When Henry and Zelda become the Saturday companions of their, beloved teacher, her exuberance for learning, having fun, and helping the homeless is contagious. Their visits to Central Park, museums, and other places around New York City open an exciting new world to Zelda and Henry. But Miss Applebaum can't escape the inevitable. Will Henry and Zelda be able to carry out her last wish? An ALA Best Book for Young Adults
Author Notes
Paul Zindel Born on Staten Island, New York, Zindel was raised by a single mother who pursued a variety of odd and mostly unsuccessful jobs and took in terminally ill patients to supplement the family income. Due to her eccentricity and restlessness, the mother moved the family from one apartment to another, making it difficult for Zindel to form lasting friendships. As a consequence, the boy lived in the world of his imagination, developing interests in both science and writing. Zindel majored in chemistry at Wagner College on Staten Island, completing both bachelors and masters degrees. During this period he also took a creative-writing course offered by the playwright Edward Albee. After college he worked briefly as a technical writer for a chemical company and then discovered a more fulfilling vocation as a teacher of chemistry and physics at a Staten Island high school. It was during this period in the early 1960s that Zindel was able to develop his potential as a playwright by drawing on his own background as well as the experiences of his young students. The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds premiered at the Alley Theater in Houston in 1965, was presented in a condensed version on television the following year, and finally opened off-Broadway at the Mercer-O'Casey Theater in 1970. Because of a fire in the theater, the play was moved, with a new cast, to the New Theater on Broadway, where it ran for a total of 819 performances. In addition to being enormously popular, Gamma Rays earned in 1970 an Obie Award as the best play of the season, the New York Drama Critics Circle Award as the best American play, and the Vernon Rice Drama Desk Award for most promising playwright. In 1971 the play was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in Drama. Gamma Rays is the story of an embittered, half-mad widow, Beatrice Hunsdorfer; her teenaged daughters, Ruth and Tillie; and Nanny, a decrepit old woman who boards with them. The family lives in chaos, with Beatrice dealing out petty vengeance to everyone. Nanny has been abandoned by her daughter. Ruth is wanton, untidy, and subject to seizures. Tillie, however, has become interested in science and enters her marigold experiment in the science fair; by exposing the marigold seeds to radiation, she shows that some produce normal plants, others produce mutations with beautiful double blooms, while still others die. The metaphor, of course, is that Tillie has emerged from her chaotic environment as a beautiful and whole person, a human "double bloom." Zindel's other plays include And Miss Reardon Drinks a Little (1971), The Secret Affairs of Mildred Wild(1973), Let Me Hear You Whisper (1973), and Ladies at the Alamo(1975). While these plays continue to show Zindel's skill in writing excellent roles for women, none of them have matched the critical and popular success of Gamma Rays. Since the late 1960s, Zindel has also written several novels for young adults. The Pigman (1968), which is about a lonely widower and two destructive teenagers, has sold more than 1 million copies. His other novels include My Darling, My Hamburger (1969), I Never Loved Your Mind (1970), Pardon Me, You're Stepping on My Eyeball (1976), Confessions of a Teenage Baboon (1977), and The Undertaker's Gone Bananas (1978). As in Gamma Rays, these works display not only a penchant for grotesque humor but an uncanny awareness of the problems of teenagers. Zindel's works, which also include several screenplays, explore the themes of loneliness, escapism, and eccentricity. His best works are humorous, perceptive, and warm; they present an affirmation of life emerging from desperate and grotesque circumstances. He is especially noted for his excellent women's roles, which has helped sustain him as a best-selling playwright for school and community groups. (Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (4)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 7-12-- Zindel skillfully weaves humor and suspense into his message that caring often means taking risks. In a dual-narrator format, high-school friends Henry and Zelda become Saturday companions to their beloved retired science teacher, Miss Applebaum. Despite her losing battle with cancer, Miss Applebaum exudes a contagious zest for learning, life, fun, and helping the homeless in New York City's Central Park. After encounters with Miss Applebaum's eccentric doctor and hostile niece, Henry and Zelda assume the role of protectors, attempting to get her better treatment and eventually carrying out her last request to be buried in Central Park. (This scene may be totally unbelievable to many readers.) By example, Miss Applebaum teaches Henry and Zelda that beauty and mystery are everywhere and that everyone has a responsibility to treasure and preserve the world around them. Henry and Zelda are a balanced pair of likable, forthright characters: Henry is impulsive and direct, while Zelda is cautious and emotional. The two are believably abosorbed by their close encounter with dying and death. A thought-provoking, well-paced, fresh addition to the Zindel collection. --Gerry Larson, Chewning Junior High School, Durham, N.C. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Zindel's novel is a paean to teachers (the extraordinary ones) and to Manhattan. Its protagonists, Zelda and Henry, each have a rich store of enthusiasms and views, but most of these diverge. For instance, ``Zelda is worried about the regular death that happens when you grow too old,'' according to Henry, while Henry himself looks out for falling objects, such as air conditioners. Yet they're united in tracing their favorite high school teacher, the exuberant Miss Applebaum, to her apartment. This generous woman is dying of cancer and happy to share her remaining, sometimes madcap, weeks with them, racing through museums and Central Park. While much of Miss Applebaum's charm must be taken on faith--she never seems quite real--readers will accept that ordinary experience grows larger for Henry and Zelda when they are with her. Her inspirational effect on these two bright and somewhat isolated characters is touching. A Charlotte Zolotow Book. Ages 12-up. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
High-school students Henry Ledniz and Zelda Einnob (try those backward: coy?), in alternating chapters, discuss themselves, their friendship, and the events leading to the death of their favorite teacher. From the moment they hear that the unorthodox Miss Applebaum has retired and seek her out at home, Henry and Zelda know that something is terribly wrong; still, they are swept up in her enthusiastic last excursions into Central Park and to various museums. Meanwhile, she enlists their aid in feeding the homeless in her area. When she becomes sicker, they decide--suspecting her niece of neglect and Dr. Obitcheck of quackery--to take her to a hospital. But it's not so simple: her cancer is not treatable, and the niece accuses them of preventing Miss Applebaum from dying in peace. In a most unlikely conclusion, they take Miss Applebaum home, and when she dies they themselves bury her secretly in her beloved Central Park. In typical Zindel style brief, rapid, facile--several current issues are addressed here. Lively and involving, if not particularly deep. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Henry and Zelda use a cash card to help their offbeat favorite teacher with her homeless friends.