Overstuffed, as many first novels are, but fitted with an admirable, funny protagonist.
In this never-a-dull-moment debut, pride and stubborn enterprise carry a brash young immigrant through both school and family troubles, as well as embarrassing errors in judgment.
“Cheese Whiz, I’m only eleven, and my life is a mess.” Such down moments are rare for Sandro, though, despite being severely overscheduled. He helps out his Zapotec father, an undocumented resident with multiple jobs and a bad back; he does his schoolwork and makes it to soccer practice; and he single-handedly runs a recycling operation on school grounds as (he mistakenly thinks) a private business to fund heart surgery his little sister, Girasol, needs. As mother and sister are in Mexico waiting for the procedure, he also has to do housework (not too well) while Papi’s on a night shift, and in school, he plots revenge on Abiola, a Pakistani classmate who has deviled him since an incident in third grade. Sounding only a little less manic than Joey Pigza, the exhausted young narrator struggles to keep these and other balls in the air as consequences and mishaps pile up. But both Abiola and a teacher pegged as mean turn out to be surprise allies, and his father’s “Be the better man, Sandro” proves a steady principle in adversity. Though Belford has her narrator utter both his favorite expletive (see above) and variations on “nothing is as it appears on the surface” with monotonous frequency and packs more issues into the tale than it can comfortably carry, readers will be happily swept along to the buoyant close.
Overstuffed, as many first novels are, but fitted with an admirable, funny protagonist. (Fiction. 10-12)Pub Date: March 3, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-63220-435-6
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Sky Pony Press
Review Posted Online: Jan. 9, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
The Baudelaire children—Violet, 14, Klaus, 12, and baby Sunny—are exceedingly ill-fated; Snicket extracts both humor and horror from their situation, as he gleefully puts them through one terrible ordeal after another. After receiving the news that their parents died in a fire, the three hapless orphans are delivered into the care of Count Olaf, who “is either a third cousin four times removed, or a fourth cousin three times removed.” The villainous Count Olaf is morally depraved and generally mean, and only takes in the downtrodden yet valiant children so that he can figure out a way to separate them from their considerable inheritance. The youngsters are able to escape his clutches at the end, but since this is the first installment in A Series of Unfortunate Events, there will be more ghastly doings. Written with old-fashioned flair, this fast-paced book is not for the squeamish: the Baudelaire children are truly sympathetic characters who encounter a multitude of distressing situations. Those who enjoy a little poison in their porridge will find it wicked good fun. (b&w illustrations, not seen) (Fiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: Sept. 30, 1999
ISBN: 0-06-440766-7
Page Count: 162
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1999
A beautifully rendered setting enfolds a disappointing plot.
In sixth grade, Izzy Mancini’s cozy, loving world falls apart.
She and her family have moved out of the cottage she grew up in. Her mother has spent the summer on Block Island instead of at home with Izzy. Her father has recently returned from military service in Afghanistan partially paralyzed and traumatized. The only people she can count on are Zelda and Piper, her best friends since kindergarten—that is, until the Haidary family moves into the upstairs apartment. At first, Izzy resents the new guests from Afghanistan even though she knows she should be grateful that Dr. Haidary saved her father’s life. But despite her initial resistance (which manifests at times as racism), as Izzy gets to know Sitara, the Haidarys’ daughter, she starts to question whether Zelda and Piper really are her friends for forever—and whether she has the courage to stand up for Sitara against the people she loves. Ferruolo weaves a rich setting, fully immersing readers in the largely white, coastal town of Seabury, Rhode Island. Disappointingly, the story resolves when Izzy convinces her classmates to accept Sitara by revealing the Haidarys’ past as American allies, a position that put them in so much danger that they had to leave home. The idea that Sitara should be embraced only because her family supported America, rather than simply because she is a human being, significantly undermines the purported message of tolerance for all.
A beautifully rendered setting enfolds a disappointing plot. (Fiction. 10-12)Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-374-30909-1
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Nov. 23, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2024 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.
