KAT'S PROMISE by Bonnie Shimko
    Category:  Contemporary
    Age Recommendation:  Grades 9+
    Release Date:  8/1/06
    Publisher:  Harcourt
    Reviewed by:  Cana Rensberger
    Rating:  5 Stars


    A week before her thirteenth birthday, Kat loses her mother to cancer and becomes an orphan. You would think she
    would be relieved to have an aunt take her in. Especially a very rich aunt. You would think that, and you would be
    very wrong. Indeed, Kat’s one wish is to see her aunt dead.

    Kat’s mother worked for meager earnings. She taught Kat how to sew, how to cook, and how to be frugal. She
    taught her how to love, and how to forgive even the most unforgivable as Kat sat at her mother’s bedside after another
    of her father’s beatings. Her mother said he couldn’t help it. It was the orphanage’s fault. It damaged him.

    But her mother’s death? That was her aunt’s fault. Kat’s mother worked in the school cafeteria until the cancer got so
    bad she couldn’t bear it anymore. Because of Aunt Paulina, Kat’s mother died in their tiny apartment, with only Kat to
    care for her, instead of in a hospital where drugs could have relieved her pain. Rich, stingy Aunt Paulina, the aunt who
    inherited all the family money after her mom was disowned, spent more money on the funeral than it would have cost
    to pay for her mother to have a life-saving operation.

    There’s nowhere else for Kat to go. Forced to live with her mother’s sister, Kat promises to make her pay. She
    begins to make good on that promise when Aunt Paulina says, “I’d like you to call me Mother.” Kat makes her
    feelings clear and sets the tone of their relationship by responding, “I’d rather be thrown off a cliff, burning alive, than
    to call you my mama’s name.”

    If I leave you thinking that KAT’S PROMISE is just another book about a mother dying and the bitterness that
    follows, then I have done you, the reader, and Bonnie Shimko, the author, a grave disservice. This book is so much
    more. Kat discovers a history of family secrets that give her a deeper understanding of both the sisters, as well as her
    father. She bonds with Nettie, Aunt Paulina’s harassed housekeeper. And she finds purpose in helping a neighbor
    regain his love for life.

    Ms. Shimko uses Beamer, Kat’s new best friend, and Johnny, the neighbor’s grandson, to add light to the story. And
    there are many other sweet moments that I’ll let you discover. The writing will delight you, especially the brilliant
    descriptions. I absolutely could not put this book down once I started it, and I was sad to say good-bye to Kat,
    especially when things were going so well. I do not doubt that the characters will stay with me and I’ll want to read this
    book again. For that reason, I give KAT’S PROMISE a gold star.
Kat's Promise
by Bonnie Shimko