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THE BLUE DOOR

Readers of the first two volumes of The Quilt Trilogy (A Stitch in Time, 1994, etc.) will delight in how Rinaldi (Keep Smiling Through, p. 535, etc.) brings all the pieces of her multigenerational saga together in this final work. Amanda Videau loves life on her family's South Carolina plantation, Yamassee. Then Grandmother Abigail sends her to Lowell, Mass., ostensibly to give Amanda a chance for adventure and independence. But Abigail's real hope is for Amanda to make peace with her estranged great-grandfather and to sell him on the idea of buying Yamassee cotton for his textile mill, the largest in New England. During Amanda's long steamship trip to the North, the ship blows up, killing nearly all its crew and passengers. Amanda, who saw the man who caused the explosion and knows that he will kill her, too, assumes the identity of a girl she met on the ship and flees. With the killer on her trail, no money, and a false identity, she finds employment in her great-grandfather's mill. Life as a mill girl is grim, and it isn't long before she protests, with the other workers, the abominable working conditions. Whether they've covered the previous books or not, readers will enjoy this rip-roaring tale of adventure and suspense; Amanda and all the other characters inhabit a revealing and credible historical milieu. (bibliography) (Fiction. 12+)

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1996

ISBN: 0-590-46051-X

Page Count: 272

Publisher: Scholastic

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996

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INDIVISIBLE

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

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GIRL IN PIECES

This grittily provocative debut explores the horrors of self-harm and the healing power of artistic expression.

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After surviving a suicide attempt, a fragile teen isn't sure she can endure without cutting herself.

Seventeen-year-old Charlie Davis, a white girl living on the margins, thinks she has little reason to live: her father drowned himself; her bereft and abusive mother kicked her out; her best friend, Ellis, is nearly brain dead after cutting too deeply; and she's gone through unspeakable experiences living on the street. After spending time in treatment with other young women like her—who cut, burn, poke, and otherwise hurt themselves—Charlie is released and takes a bus from the Twin Cities to Tucson to be closer to Mikey, a boy she "like-likes" but who had pined for Ellis instead. But things don't go as planned in the Arizona desert, because sweet Mikey just wants to be friends. Feeling rejected, Charlie, an artist, is drawn into a destructive new relationship with her sexy older co-worker, a "semifamous" local musician who's obviously a junkie alcoholic. Through intense, diarylike chapters chronicling Charlie's journey, the author captures the brutal and heartbreaking way "girls who write their pain on their bodies" scar and mar themselves, either succumbing or surviving. Like most issue books, this is not an easy read, but it's poignant and transcendent as Charlie breaks more and more before piecing herself back together.

This grittily provocative debut explores the horrors of self-harm and the healing power of artistic expression. (author’s note) (Fiction. 14 & up)

Pub Date: Aug. 30, 2016

ISBN: 978-1-101-93471-5

Page Count: 416

Publisher: Delacorte

Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2016

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