A compelling montage of stories that will leave readers wanting to know more about each character.
A kaleidoscopic view of how the kids in one urban apartment building experience Covid-19.
Danila and Mimi (Apt. 4A) eagerly await a family airplane trip that gets canceled because of the encroaching pandemic. Their aunt goes on a cruise that turns nightmarish when she is confined to her room, then contracts COVID-19. In this and the other six stories, the children express their fears, isolation, and disappointments about losing everything normal: school, friends, sports, etc. The virus also affects their parents’ mental health. For instance, Conner (Apt. 3C) notices that his dad is smoking more, watches the news obsessively, wears the same clothes every day, and becomes increasingly less capable of helping with remote learning since losing his restaurant job. One day, Conner’s dad yells at Mrs. Watts, the complex’s unofficial grandmother, when he assumes she’s hoarding toilet paper. Conner intervenes to create a positive outcome, prompting his dad to realize he needs help. While each vignette is an entertaining short story, it’s the connections among the kids that make this a brilliant read. Their support of one another and the adults in the building portrays a positive side to lockdowns and quarantines while not sugarcoating the deadliness of Covid-19. The climactic final chapter brings all of the children—and Mrs. Watts—together for a slightly dangerous but informative and emotionally satisfying conclusion. Racial and cultural diversity among the characters is conveyed but not explored; one girl and her father are Deaf.
A compelling montage of stories that will leave readers wanting to know more about each character. (author's note) (Fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Aug. 3, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-77306-572-4
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Groundwood
Review Posted Online: June 28, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2021
Riveting, inspiring, and sometimes hilarious.
If you made a recording to be heard by the aliens who found the iPod, what would you record?
For 11-year-old Alex Petroski, it's easy. He records everything. He records the story of how he travels to New Mexico to a rocket festival with his dog, Carl Sagan, and his rocket. He records finding out that a man with the same name and birthday as his dead father has an address in Las Vegas. He records eating at Johnny Rockets for the first time with his new friends, who are giving him a ride to find his dead father (who might not be dead!), and losing Carl Sagan in the wilds of Las Vegas, and discovering he has a half sister. He even records his own awful accident. Cheng delivers a sweet, soulful debut novel with a brilliant, refreshing structure. His characters manage to come alive through the “transcript” of Alex’s iPod recording, an odd medium that sounds like it would be confusing but really works. Taking inspiration from the Voyager Golden Record released to space in 1977, Alex, who explains he has “light brown skin,” records all the important moments of a journey that takes him from a family of two to a family of plenty.
Riveting, inspiring, and sometimes hilarious. (Fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Feb. 28, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-399-18637-0
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 18, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
A captivating book situated in present-day discourse around the refugee crisis, featuring two boys who stand by their high...
Two parallel stories, one of a Syrian boy from Aleppo fleeing war, and another of a white American boy, son of a NATO contractor, dealing with the challenges of growing up, intersect at a house in Brussels.
Ahmed lost his father while crossing the Mediterranean. Alone and broke in Europe, he takes things into his own hands to get to safety but ends up having to hide in the basement of a residential house. After months of hiding, he is discovered by Max, a boy of similar age and parallel high integrity and courage, who is experiencing his own set of troubles learning a new language, moving to a new country, and being teased at school. In an unexpected turn of events, the two boys and their new friends Farah, a Muslim Belgian girl, and Oscar, a white Belgian boy, successfully scheme for Ahmed to go to school while he remains in hiding the rest of the time. What is at stake for Ahmed is immense, and so is the risk to everyone involved. Marsh invites art and history to motivate her protagonists, drawing parallels to gentiles who protected Jews fleeing Nazi terror and citing present-day political news. This well-crafted and suspenseful novel touches on the topics of refugees and immigrant integration, terrorism, Islam, Islamophobia, and the Syrian war with sensitivity and grace.
A captivating book situated in present-day discourse around the refugee crisis, featuring two boys who stand by their high values in the face of grave risk and succeed in drawing goodwill from others. (Historical fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Aug. 7, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-250-30757-6
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: June 10, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2018
© 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.
