A culturally confusing fictional tale that undermines the real-life tragedy of the Indians aboard the Komagata Maru.
Twelve-year-old Katelyn Medena, a white Canadian, is haunted by a Sikh girl named Akasha who lived a century ago.
The visions having led to a diagnosis of mental illness, Katelyn finds herself in a group home for troubled girls. In blackouts, Katelyn is possessed by the mysterious Akasha, whose letters she finds in her journal. They chronicle Akasha’s flight from India as a stowaway on a ship, hidden by Sanjay, her sweetheart. Because she is Sikh and he is Hindi, the partnership is forbidden. Their plan is disrupted when they are separated, and Akasha is tricked into a Vancouver brothel. On the other end of time, Katelyn investigates. Though this story is based on the real-life Komagata Maru, a Japanese ship full of Indian passengers that attempted to dock in British Columbia in 1914, the narrative is lost in the contrived psychic connection between a 12-year-old white girl and a young Indian stowaway. Katelyn’s modern-day Indian friends serve as what feels like a token backdrop, their presence in the story a matter of cultural convenience, while Akasha’s historical struggle is seen through the eyes of the white main character. Also problematic in this strange, slow-moving tale is the plot-driven convenience with which Katelyn’s underage, mentally unstable peers, who are supposed to be in supervised residential treatment, roam the city of Vancouver with any companion over 15.
A culturally confusing fictional tale that undermines the real-life tragedy of the Indians aboard the Komagata Maru. (Historical fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-77086-490-0
Page Count: 216
Publisher: DCB
Review Posted Online: Aug. 20, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic.
Chainani works an elaborate sea change akin to Gregory Maguire’s Wicked (1995), though he leaves the waters muddied.
Every four years, two children, one regarded as particularly nice and the other particularly nasty, are snatched from the village of Gavaldon by the shadowy School Master to attend the divided titular school. Those who survive to graduate become major or minor characters in fairy tales. When it happens to sweet, Disney princess–like Sophie and her friend Agatha, plain of features, sour of disposition and low of self-esteem, they are both horrified to discover that they’ve been dropped not where they expect but at Evil and at Good respectively. Gradually—too gradually, as the author strings out hundreds of pages of Hogwarts-style pranks, classroom mishaps and competitions both academic and romantic—it becomes clear that the placement wasn’t a mistake at all. Growing into their true natures amid revelations and marked physical changes, the two spark escalating rivalry between the wings of the school. This leads up to a vicious climactic fight that sees Good and Evil repeatedly switching sides. At this point, readers are likely to feel suddenly left behind, as, thanks to summary deus ex machina resolutions, everything turns out swell(ish).
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic. (Fantasy. 11-13)Pub Date: May 14, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-06-210489-2
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
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
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