A thoughtful, richly woven tapestry illuminating the pains and joys of growing up.
In many ways, Jade is a typical middle schooler.
She loves running and art and is working hard to make friends at her new Catholic school after a move to Atlanta from Chicago for her mom’s new job as a CNN anchorwoman. In a magical departure from the expected, Jade discovers a jaguar living in the woods behind her home who takes the shape of Itztli, an amiable elder who shares with her art and incredible oral history reaching back to Mesoamerican civilizations just when she needs it the most. Jade is astounded to find that the challenges that Itztli describes in his stories mirror the difficulties she herself is facing in 2001, from getting her first period to making a home in a new place. Jade’s maternal heritage is Mexican, and her dad has Irish ancestry; Jade’s light skin, blond hair, and green eyes bring intricacy to her Latina experience, especially since her sister’s complexion is darker. The novel explores themes of identity, friendship, crushes, loss, and looking for answers to life’s toughest questions in sumptuous detail. A coming-of-age story with parallels to Judy Blume’s classic Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret., this work captures the complexities of being a tween girl seeking to find her place in the world and connections to ancestors through a Latine cultural lens.
A thoughtful, richly woven tapestry illuminating the pains and joys of growing up. (research notes) (Fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Oct. 11, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-64614-175-3
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Levine Querido
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2022
PERSPECTIVES
A captivating book situated in present-day discourse around the refugee crisis, featuring two boys who stand by their high...
Two parallel stories, one of a Syrian boy from Aleppo fleeing war, and another of a white American boy, son of a NATO contractor, dealing with the challenges of growing up, intersect at a house in Brussels.
Ahmed lost his father while crossing the Mediterranean. Alone and broke in Europe, he takes things into his own hands to get to safety but ends up having to hide in the basement of a residential house. After months of hiding, he is discovered by Max, a boy of similar age and parallel high integrity and courage, who is experiencing his own set of troubles learning a new language, moving to a new country, and being teased at school. In an unexpected turn of events, the two boys and their new friends Farah, a Muslim Belgian girl, and Oscar, a white Belgian boy, successfully scheme for Ahmed to go to school while he remains in hiding the rest of the time. What is at stake for Ahmed is immense, and so is the risk to everyone involved. Marsh invites art and history to motivate her protagonists, drawing parallels to gentiles who protected Jews fleeing Nazi terror and citing present-day political news. This well-crafted and suspenseful novel touches on the topics of refugees and immigrant integration, terrorism, Islam, Islamophobia, and the Syrian war with sensitivity and grace.
A captivating book situated in present-day discourse around the refugee crisis, featuring two boys who stand by their high values in the face of grave risk and succeed in drawing goodwill from others. (Historical fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Aug. 7, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-250-30757-6
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: June 10, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2018
Poignant, respectful, and historically accurate while pulsating with emotional turmoil, adventure, and suspense.
In the midst of political turmoil, how do you escape the only country that you’ve ever known and navigate a new life? Parallel stories of three different middle school–aged refugees—Josef from Nazi Germany in 1938, Isabel from 1994 Cuba, and Mahmoud from 2015 Aleppo—eventually intertwine for maximum impact.
Three countries, three time periods, three brave protagonists. Yet these three refugee odysseys have so much in common. Each traverses a landscape ruled by a dictator and must balance freedom, family, and responsibility. Each initially leaves by boat, struggles between visibility and invisibility, copes with repeated obstacles and heart-wrenching loss, and gains resilience in the process. Each third-person narrative offers an accessible look at migration under duress, in which the behavior of familiar adults changes unpredictably, strangers exploit the vulnerabilities of transients, and circumstances seem driven by random luck. Mahmoud eventually concludes that visibility is best: “See us….Hear us. Help us.” With this book, Gratz accomplishes a feat that is nothing short of brilliant, offering a skillfully wrought narrative laced with global and intergenerational reverberations that signal hope for the future. Excellent for older middle grade and above in classrooms, book groups, and/or communities looking to increase empathy for new and existing arrivals from afar.
Poignant, respectful, and historically accurate while pulsating with emotional turmoil, adventure, and suspense. (maps, author’s note) (Historical fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: July 25, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-545-88083-1
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2017
PROFILES
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