Black boy joy, hurt, anxiety, and perseverance relayed with charm.
Tragedy strikes a trio of friends, but as the remaining duo grieve and grow apart, high school looms.
Darius and Isaiah first became friends as the only Black kids at robotics camp, but with new student Drew added to the mix, the three skater kids from Michigan use their humor, friendly wagers, and Guinness World Records ambitions to overcome almost anything—from bullies to missing dads. But the sudden death of Darius, who was hit by a car while being harassed by a stranger, isn’t something Drew and Isaiah can easily overcome. Isaiah, a secret plant lover and not-so-secretly sensitive 13-year-old, narrates the feelings of loss and anxiety that overwhelm the last months of middle school and cause a rift between him and Drew, since both boys are grappling with big feelings of guilt, blame, and regret over Darius’ death. Each free-verse poem is presented with the emotive rhythm and pacing of a kid who’s just as afraid of what his peers think as he is of not being seen as man enough in his dad’s eyes. Isaiah is sent to live with his aunt and uncle in North Carolina for the summer for a bit of a fresh start, which proves to be a necessary diversion that yields new friends, new perspectives—and first kisses!—for the boy who hid so much of himself from a world that made him believe he had to. Occasional pen-and-ink–style art complements the text.
Black boy joy, hurt, anxiety, and perseverance relayed with charm. (Verse fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: April 23, 2024
ISBN: 9781481465830
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Caitlyn Dlouhy/Atheneum
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2024
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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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
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