by Nina Hamza ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 14, 2024
Simply charming.
When a seventh grader’s favorite tree gets toilet-papered, it’s the catalyst for either her worst or best summer ever.
Sammy’s school year was terrible. Not only did her former best friend, Kiera, dump her, but she even became Sammy’s bully. But the last day of school seems to set the tone for a summer that Sammy dreads. The beautiful maple in front of her house that she loves to sit in and read is T.P.’d, upsetting the whole family, especially Imran, her autistic 7-year-old brother. After Sammy mentions prejudice as a possible motive, Imran becomes fixated on the idea that they’ve been targeted because they’re Indian American and Muslim. Making things worse, Sammy’s parents and older sister, Zaara, will be visiting India, while Sammy will stay behind with Imran and Umma, their grandmother. But things start looking up when a new girl moves in nearby. Alice and Sammy become fast friends until Kiera tries to split them apart. What Sammy doesn’t anticipate is how the power of Umma’s quiet strength and compassion will transform not only Sammy herself, but the whole community. Hamza takes readers on a roller coaster of emotions in this authentically written story that addresses important topics, such as bullying, finding a sense of belonging, learning how to self-advocate, building community, and staying true to one’s identity. The characterization is robust: Against the backdrop of her rich cultural heritage, Sammy’s middle school struggles are hugely relatable, and Imran is sensitive, insightful, and funny.
Simply charming. (Fiction. 9-13)Pub Date: May 14, 2024
ISBN: 9780063024946
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: March 9, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2024
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by Nina Hamza
by Soman Chainani ; illustrated by Iacopo Bruno ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 14, 2013
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic.
Chainani works an elaborate sea change akin to Gregory Maguire’s Wicked (1995), though he leaves the waters muddied.
Every four years, two children, one regarded as particularly nice and the other particularly nasty, are snatched from the village of Gavaldon by the shadowy School Master to attend the divided titular school. Those who survive to graduate become major or minor characters in fairy tales. When it happens to sweet, Disney princess–like Sophie and her friend Agatha, plain of features, sour of disposition and low of self-esteem, they are both horrified to discover that they’ve been dropped not where they expect but at Evil and at Good respectively. Gradually—too gradually, as the author strings out hundreds of pages of Hogwarts-style pranks, classroom mishaps and competitions both academic and romantic—it becomes clear that the placement wasn’t a mistake at all. Growing into their true natures amid revelations and marked physical changes, the two spark escalating rivalry between the wings of the school. This leads up to a vicious climactic fight that sees Good and Evil repeatedly switching sides. At this point, readers are likely to feel suddenly left behind, as, thanks to summary deus ex machina resolutions, everything turns out swell(ish).
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic. (Fantasy. 11-13)Pub Date: May 14, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-06-210489-2
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2013
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by Soman Chainani ; illustrated by Iacopo Bruno
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BOOK TO SCREEN
by Natalie Babbitt ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 1, 1975
However the compelling fitness of theme and event and the apt but unexpected imagery (the opening sentences compare the...
At a time when death has become an acceptable, even voguish subject in children's fiction, Natalie Babbitt comes through with a stylistic gem about living forever.
Protected Winnie, the ten-year-old heroine, is not immortal, but when she comes upon young Jesse Tuck drinking from a secret spring in her parents' woods, she finds herself involved with a family who, having innocently drunk the same water some 87 years earlier, haven't aged a moment since. Though the mood is delicate, there is no lack of action, with the Tucks (previously suspected of witchcraft) now pursued for kidnapping Winnie; Mae Tuck, the middle aged mother, striking and killing a stranger who is onto their secret and would sell the water; and Winnie taking Mae's place in prison so that the Tucks can get away before she is hanged from the neck until....? Though Babbitt makes the family a sad one, most of their reasons for discontent are circumstantial and there isn't a great deal of wisdom to be gleaned from their fate or Winnie's decision not to share it.
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1975
ISBN: 0312369816
Page Count: 164
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: April 13, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1975
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by Valerie Worth & illustrated by Natalie Babbitt
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