A charismatic, dangerous girl with a flair for drama first attracts and then repels both protagonist and reader in this disquieting story. Dumpy Delia has just moved (again) and is starting midyear at a new high school. Fully aware of her social position (“This week was different from last, when the luster of ‘new girl’ had clung to me shiny as a wet lollipop. . . . Now, kids had figured out that I was nothing special”), Delia is pleased, if wary, when the one-of-a-kind Amandine singles her out for friendship. Together they enact “skits” about their schoolmates and vie with each other for honors in an informal contest to collect “Ugliest Things.” When Amandine lashes out cruelly at a third friend, however, Delia finds the strength to pull away from the relationship—but Amandine will not let her go without exacting revenge. Griffin (Witch Twins, p. 740, etc.) gets Delia just right: her smart, observer’s voice perfectly fits a girl who has sat on the sidelines for most of her life, including in her own home, where her parents clearly take out their disappointment in her with a sort of conscientious neglect (they feed her, for example, but never with them). The language at times approaches the sublime: as a volunteer at a nursing home, Delia “held up the listening end on the slow unraveling spools of other people’s lives.” Some of the characterization is a little incomplete and overtidy—a neighbor who is paid to pick Delia up after school suddenly becomes a surrogate mother to her, Delia herself develops a spine seemingly overnight—but the roots of Amandine’s viciousness, while clearly indicated by her own bizarre household, remain satisfyingly beyond our ken. Beautifully told and emotionally honest. (Fiction. YA)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-7868-0618-4
Page Count: 220
Publisher: Hyperion
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2001
An ode to the children of migrants who have been taken away.
A Mexican American boy takes on heavy responsibilities when his family is torn apart.
Mateo’s life is turned upside down the day U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents show up unsuccessfully seeking his Pa at his New York City bodega. The Garcias live in fear until the day both parents are picked up; his Pa is taken to jail and his Ma to a detention center. The adults around Mateo offer support to him and his 7-year-old sister, Sophie, however, he knows he is now responsible for caring for her and the bodega as well as trying to survive junior year—that is, if he wants to fulfill his dream to enter the drama program at the Tisch School of the Arts and become an actor. Mateo’s relationships with his friends Kimmie and Adam (a potential love interest) also suffer repercussions as he keeps his situation a secret. Kimmie is half Korean (her other half is unspecified) and Adam is Italian American; Mateo feels disconnected from them, less American, and with worries they can’t understand. He talks himself out of choosing a safer course of action, a decision that deepens the story. Mateo’s self-awareness and inner monologue at times make him seem older than 16, and, with significant turmoil in the main plot, some side elements feel underdeveloped. Aleman’s narrative joins the ranks of heart-wrenching stories of migrant families who have been separated.
An ode to the children of migrants who have been taken away. (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: May 4, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-7595-5605-8
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 22, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
There’s not much plot here, but readers will relish the opportunity to climb inside Autumn’s head.
The finely drawn characters capture readers’ attention in this debut.
Autumn and Phineas, nicknamed Finny, were born a week apart; their mothers are still best friends. Growing up, Autumn and Finny were like peas in a pod despite their differences: Autumn is “quirky and odd,” while Finny is “sweet and shy and everyone like[s] him.” But in eighth grade, Autumn and Finny stop being friends due to an unexpected kiss. They drift apart and find new friends, but their friendship keeps asserting itself at parties, shared holiday gatherings and random encounters. In the summer after graduation, Autumn and Finny reconnect and are finally ready to be more than friends. But on August 8, everything changes, and Autumn has to rely on all her strength to move on. Autumn’s coming-of-age is sensitively chronicled, with a wide range of experiences and events shaping her character. Even secondary characters are well-rounded, with their own histories and motivations.
There’s not much plot here, but readers will relish the opportunity to climb inside Autumn’s head. (Fiction. 14 & up)Pub Date: April 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4022-7782-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
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