A heartfelt exploration of a young writer’s struggles and successes, with practical advice included.
If you already know your fantasy story’s plot, characters, and world, then writing it will be easy, right? So why is Lyla so stuck?
Attending a different middle school than her best friend, Rania Goswami, seventh grader Lyla hasn’t found other close friends; at lunch she’s stuck with weird, friendless, animal-obsessed Journey Lombardi-Sullivan. At least Lyla’s favorite teacher assigns them creative writing, so Lyla can finally start the story she’s long been plotting, one about a Scribe named Aster’s quest through the haunted Quagmire to rescue her big sister. But why won’t the words come? And why do Rania and her new friends seem to be laughing at Lyla’s writing project? At home, constant fighting between Dahlia (Lyla’s “genius” older sister) and their parents hides Dahlia’s desperate desire not to attend college. How can Lyla unstick her writing, recognize her true friends, and find a practical way to help her sister? With wonderfully rich characterization and impeccable pacing, the author interweaves middle school friend and family dramas with struggles familiar to any writer. Of the many constructive suggestions offered by Lyla’s teacher, some do help her, such as not remaining laser focused on winning the contest. The inserted excerpts from Lyla’s novel demonstrate both her writing-process difficulties and how her real-life problems subconsciously inform her writing. Most main characters are cued white; Rania reads Indian American.
A heartfelt exploration of a young writer’s struggles and successes, with practical advice included. (writing tips) (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Feb. 27, 2024
ISBN: 9781534489868
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023
During a school year in which a gifted teacher who emphasizes personal responsibility among his fifth graders ends up in a coma from a thrown snowball, his students come to terms with their own issues and learn to be forgiving. Told in short chapters organized month-by-month in the voices of seven students, often describing the same incident from different viewpoints, this weaves together a variety of not-uncommon classroom characters and situations: the new kid, the trickster, the social bully, the super-bright and the disaffected; family clashes, divorce and death; an unwed mother whose long-ago actions haven't been forgotten in the small-town setting; class and experiential differences. Mr. Terupt engineers regular visits to the school’s special-needs classroom, changing some lives on both sides. A "Dollar Word" activity so appeals to Luke that he sprinkles them throughout his narrative all year. Danielle includes her regular prayers, and Anna never stops her hopeful matchmaking. No one is perfect in this feel-good story, but everyone benefits, including sentimentally inclined readers. (Fiction. 9-12)
Pub Date: Oct. 12, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-385-73882-8
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: Sept. 1, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2010
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
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
