A poignant, adventurous, and historically informative narrative for young readers.
In this third volume of Cetas’ middle grade and YA historical series, three adolescents confront major challenges on their paths to adulthood.
In September 1663, 12-year-old Etienne Gayneau is waiting on the dock in the harbor of New Amsterdam, waiting to board a merchant ship that will take him, as a crewmember, to Boston and then across the Atlantic. He’s a French immigrant whose Protestant family fled religious persecution in his country several years ago. He’s now embarking on a new career at sea. Standing near him is 10-year-old Abraham Dayton, who’s traveling with his English father to Boston, where his dad hopes to obtain a loan to finance a new whaling venture. Abraham’s mother is a member of the Montauk tribe, and his father is a member of one of the founding families of East Hampton. A young girl, Alsoomse, is a member of the Lenape nation in Manhattan who’s around Etienne’s age; she rows up to the dock and expresses anger at Etienne for leaving without saying goodbye to her. The three youngsters are all on the precipice of major changes in their lives. Alsoomse and Etienne’s adolescent romance will be deferred during his unexpectedly prolonged absence at sea; a notorious pirate and enslaver will kidnap him. Independent, high-spirited Alsoomse, who loves to hunt and traverse the woods on her own, will contend with her mother’s pressure to marry within her Lanape community. Abraham, angry at his father’s family for their disrespect toward his mother, and at his father for declaring him too young and weak to hunt or go whaling, will face tragic loss during a smallpox epidemic that will strike the East End of Long Island; along the way, he’ll learn to control his rage.
Over the course of this novel, the three coming-of-age stories alternate and unspool gradually, intermittently bursting into high-action drama during Etienne’s adventures at sea. A third-person narrator tells Alsoomse’s and Abraham’s tales, but Etienne speaks to readers in his own voice, making his adventures and travails the most riveting here. At one point, for instance, he vividly describes racing to free a tangled mainsail as the ship struggles through a storm: “I fought my way to the mainsail, grabbed the ratline, and climbed. The ship tipped over again, and I lost my footing. My feet swung out in an arc as I clung desperately to the ropes.” The personal journeys of the three main players—an immigrant, a Native American, and a biracial youngster who must navigate the conflicts between his two cultures—reflect pivotal historical changes of the period in which they live. It’s a time of increasing white European settlement within Indigenous territory, which culminates in Dutch Peter Stuyvesant’s 1664 surrender of Manhattan to the British. Cetas has clearly done extensive research into the period and setting, and she fills the narrative with evocative cultural details and atmospherics that give the story a sense of foreboding—a tone that readers will find compelling.
A poignant, adventurous, and historically informative narrative for young readers.Pub Date: April 7, 2024
ISBN: 9781956277142
Page Count: 308
Publisher: Windy Sea Publishing
Review Posted Online: March 5, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A heavy read about the harsh realities of tragedy and their effects on those left behind.
In this companion novel to 2013’s If He Had Been With Me, three characters tell their sides of the story.
Finn’s narrative starts three days before his death. He explores the progress of his unrequited love for best friend Autumn up until the day he finally expresses his feelings. Finn’s story ends with his tragic death, which leaves his close friends devastated, unmoored, and uncertain how to go on. Jack’s section follows, offering a heartbreaking look at what it’s like to live with grief. Jack works to overcome the anger he feels toward Sylvie, the girlfriend Finn was breaking up with when he died, and Autumn, the girl he was preparing to build his life around (but whom Jack believed wasn’t good enough for Finn). But when Jack sees how Autumn’s grief matches his own, it changes their understanding of one another. Autumn’s chapters trace her life without Finn as readers follow her struggles with mental health and balancing love and loss. Those who have read the earlier book will better connect with and feel for these characters, particularly since they’ll have a more well-rounded impression of Finn. The pain and anger is well written, and the novel highlights the most troublesome aspects of young adulthood: overconfidence sprinkled with heavy insecurities, fear-fueled decisions, bad communication, and brash judgments. Characters are cued white.
A heavy read about the harsh realities of tragedy and their effects on those left behind. (author’s note, content warning) (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781728276229
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Review Posted Online: Jan. 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
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
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