Kerri's book pick is 'The Silver Star' by Jeannette Walls

Kerri's book pick this week is Jeannette Walls's "The Silver Star." Set in the early '70s, the novel tells the story of two sisters abandoned by their mother.

Kirkus says, "Walls turns what could have been another sentimental girl-on-the-run-finds-home cliche into a fresh consideration of both adolescence and the South on the cusp of major social change."

LEARN MORE ABOUT JEANNETTE WALLS AND 'THE SILVER STAR':

• A New Castle in the Realm of Fiction
Did Bean, whose real name is Jean, wind up with that nickname because Scout was already taken? There's a lot of "To Kill a Mockingbird" in "The Silver Star," enough to remind readers that Harper Lee chose to quit while she was ahead. (The New York Times)

• Jeannette Walls' 'Silver Star' Lacks Spunk And Direction
"Maybe, like her two young characters in The Silver Star, the author is herself on a kind of unexpected journey, trying to figure out how to move from memoirist to novelist. This isn't necessarily an easy shift, nor is it mandatory. Sometimes a memoirist stays in the world of memoir too long, and there are diminishing returns, because all the really good stuff happened in book one, and by the time book two or three comes along, it's basically all outtakes and small, vaguely unsatisfying potatoes." (NPR)

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