A fun-filled romp grounded in love, family, and plenty of mud.
A boy seeks himself within a family of big personalities.
Ever since he broke his wrist, 11-year-old Korean Canadian Evan Park has been able to avoid his overbearing father’s questions about returning to team sports. Evan’s headstrong older sister, Lydia, has her gymnastics trophies, his little sister, Georgia, is busy being a cute 3-year-old, and Evan feels lost: “I just want to find something for me.” His physiotherapist suggests training for the junior division of the Dominator Ninja competition that’s coming up in a few months. Excited by the YouTube videos he sees, Evan feels he’s finally found something he’s chosen for himself and that he can excel at, so he starts building an obstacle course in his backyard to practice in. The straightforward, accessibly written narrative reveals the family’s sometimes fraught dynamics, as Evan’s laidback mom and traditionally hypermasculine dad each support him in their own ways. When Evan sprains his newly healed wrist, Lydia suggests the Parks enter the family team event of an upcoming “super muddy” obstacle course contest called Soiled Pants. The training process helps Evan understand what Lydia means about finding “the sweet spot” between “being competitive and doing your best, all while not being a jerk.” When Soiled Pants arrives, the Parks must rely on true collaboration. While some elements of the resolution feel pat, Evan’s dilemma is relatable, and the story offers an entertaining look at serious issues.
A fun-filled romp grounded in love, family, and plenty of mud. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2024
ISBN: 9781774883433
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Tundra Books
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Charming, poignant, and thoughtfully woven.
An aspiring scientist and a budding artist become friends and help each other with dream projects.
Unfolding in mid-1980s Sacramento, California, this story stars 12-year-olds Rosalind and Benjamin as first-person narrators in alternating chapters. Ro’s father, a fellow space buff, was killed by a drunk driver; the rocket they were working on together lies unfinished in her closet. As for Benji, not only has his best friend, Amir, moved away, but the comic book holding the clue for locating his dad is also missing. Along with their profound personal losses, the protagonists share a fixation with the universe’s intriguing potential: Ro decides to complete the rocket and hopes to launch mementos of her father into outer space while Benji’s conviction that aliens and UFOs are real compels his imagination and creativity as an artist. An accident in science class triggers a chain of events forcing Benji and Ro, who is new to the school, to interact and unintentionally learn each other’s secrets. They resolve to find Benji’s dad—a famous comic-book artist—and partner to finish Ro’s rocket for the science fair. Together, they overcome technical, scheduling, and geographical challenges. Readers will be drawn in by amusing and fantastical elements in the comic book theme, high emotional stakes that arouse sympathy, and well-drawn character development as the protagonists navigate life lessons around grief, patience, self-advocacy, and standing up for others. Ro is biracial (Chinese/White); Benji is White.
Charming, poignant, and thoughtfully woven. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Jan. 12, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-06-300888-5
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Entrancing and uplifting.
A small dog, the elderly woman who owns him, and a homeless girl come together to create a tale of serendipity.
Piper, almost 12, her parents, and her younger brother are at the bottom of a long slide toward homelessness. Finally in a family shelter, Piper finds that her newfound safety gives her the opportunity to reach out to someone who needs help even more. Jewel, mentally ill, lives in the park with her dog, Baby. Unwilling to leave her pet, and forbidden to enter the shelter with him, she struggles with the winter weather. Ree, also homeless and with a large dog, helps when she can, but after Jewel gets sick and is hospitalized, Baby’s taken to the animal shelter, and Ree can’t manage the complex issues alone. It’s Piper, using her best investigative skills, who figures out Jewel’s backstory. Still, she needs all the help of the shelter Firefly Girls troop that she joins to achieve her accomplishment: to raise enough money to provide Jewel and Baby with a secure, hopeful future and, maybe, with their kindness, to inspire a happier story for Ree. Told in the authentic alternating voices of loving child and loyal dog, this tale could easily slump into a syrupy melodrama, but Pyron lets her well-drawn characters earn their believable happy ending, step by challenging step, by reaching out and working together. Piper, her family, and Jewel present white; Pyron uses hair and naming convention, respectively, to cue Ree as black and Piper’s friend Gabriela as Latinx.
Entrancing and uplifting. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Aug. 13, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-06-283922-0
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: April 9, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2019
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