A quietly affecting portrait of an aspiring activist logophile as a black Philly girl.
The NAACP Image Award–nominated author of Riding Chance (2016) cultivates another tale of blossoming blackness in the soil of her hometown of Philadelphia.
Geneva “Neva” Beane, 12, uses her Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary and its definitions to help her describe and navigate the world as much as the author uses the vocabulary words to frame each chapter. Neva’s world is filled with the increasingly agitating presence of her 16-year-old lifeguard brother, Clayton, and her lovingly well-intentioned, sometimes brusque grandparents Nana and Granddad, who are rearing the siblings while their parents pursue their musical dreams in Europe. It shifts when she reassesses her developing body, her familial relationships, and her friendship with her bestie, Jamila, through the upending presence of Michelle Overton, the 13-year-old across-the-street neighbor whom Neva describes as “hot and happening” and whom Granddad and Nana suspect of being “trouble” by involving Clayton in social activism, which they eschew for quieter forms of community service. Soon, Michelle’s friendship with Clayton leads to her befriending Neva, creating escalating tension between Neva and Jamila as well as Neva and her guardians. Will Neva’s belief in words help her believe in herself, her body, her family and friends, and her place in her politically expanding world? Through Neva’s intelligent narration, Kendall explores contemporary debates to young readers, making them plain and personal.
A quietly affecting portrait of an aspiring activist logophile as a black Philly girl. (Fiction. 10-12)Pub Date: Sept. 15, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-338-32489-1
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: June 2, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
On equal footing with a garden-variety potato.
The new kid in school endures becoming the school mascot.
Ben Hardy has never cared for potatoes, and this distaste has become a barrier to adjusting to life in his new Idaho town. His school’s mascot is the Spud, and after a series of misfortunes, Ben is enlisted to don the potato costume and cheer on his school’s team. Ben balances his duties as a life-sized potato against his desperate desire to hide the fact that he’s the dork in the suit. After all, his cute new crush, Jayla, wouldn’t be too impressed to discover Ben’s secret. The ensuing novel is a fairly boilerplate middle–grade narrative: snarky tween protagonist, the crush that isn’t quite what she seems, and a pair of best friends that have more going on than our hero initially believes. The author keeps the novel moving quickly, pushing forward with witty asides and narrative momentum so fast that readers won’t really mind that the plot’s spine is one they’ve encountered many times before. Once finished, readers will feel little resonance and move on to the next book in their to-read piles, but in the moment the novel is pleasant enough. Ben, Jayla, and Ben’s friend Hunter are white while Ellie, Ben’s other good pal, is Latina.
On equal footing with a garden-variety potato. (Fiction. 10-12)Pub Date: March 24, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-11866-5
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Nov. 23, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
A solid debut: fluent, funny and eminently sequel-worthy.
Inventively tweaking a popular premise, Jensen pits two Incredibles-style families with superpowers against each other—until a new challenge rises to unite them.
The Johnsons invariably spit at the mere mention of their hated rivals, the Baileys. Likewise, all Baileys habitually shake their fists when referring to the Johnsons. Having long looked forward to getting a superpower so that he too can battle his clan’s nemeses, Rafter Bailey is devastated when, instead of being able to fly or something else cool, he acquires the “power” to strike a match on soft polyester. But when hated classmate Juanita Johnson turns up newly endowed with a similarly bogus power and, against all family tradition, they compare notes, it becomes clear that something fishy is going on. Both families regard themselves as the heroes and their rivals as the villains. Someone has been inciting them to fight each other. Worse yet, that someone has apparently developed a device that turns real superpowers into silly ones. Teaching themselves on the fly how to get past their prejudice and work together, Rafter, his little brother, Benny, and Juanita follow a well-laid-out chain of clues and deductions to the climactic discovery of a third, genuinely nefarious family, the Joneses, and a fiendishly clever scheme to dispose of all the Baileys and Johnsons at once. Can they carry the day?
A solid debut: fluent, funny and eminently sequel-worthy. (Adventure. 10-12)Pub Date: Jan. 21, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-06-220961-0
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Nov. 1, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
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