Radio Girl

September 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.

September 1, 2013
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 naive 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)

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September 1, 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

Copyright 2013 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 15, 2013
Grades 5-8 Cece Maloney is only 14, but she knows what she wants out of life: a career in radio. Her pop, a well-respected radio sound-effects man has promised to get her an interview at Mutual Broadcasting, but when he reneges, Cece talks her way into a job typing newsroom copy and scripts at rival CBS. Cece is a fan of radio soaps, but they have nothing on her own life. Her teenage aunt appears to be having an affair with a parish priest, her best friend has a medium for a mother, and there's something odd going on between her parents. Will the truth crush her dreams? Brendler does two things here very well: she tells an enjoyable story, and the 1938 setting really evokes an era. A couple of twists are predictableat least to veteran readersand there's the occasional, small incorrect fact ( Swinging on a Star wasn't recorded until 1944). But this is so full of charm and humor, it's good that a sequel seems on the way.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)

January 1, 2014
Fourteen-year-old Cece Maloney will do anything to be a radio star, so she charms her way into a typing job at CBS studios and awaits her chance. Her secrets and those of her friends and family come to a head on the eve of Orson Welles's War of the Worlds broadcast. Cece's innocence is fetching, as is Brendler's 1938 New York setting.

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