Riveting and heartbreaking.
Grey Gardens meets teen family drama.
Lorrie Hollander is used to a trust fund that never runs dry and summers at an exclusive horse camp, but everything changes when Lorrie is discharged from camp after her guardian, her erratic aunt, Gigi, neglects to pay the tuition. Crestfallen, Lorrie heads home to Edgewater, the Hollander family estate, once an impressive and elegant home but now fallen to ruin of health-risk proportions and a constant source of shame for Lorrie. When Lorrie confronts her aunt about the missed payment, Gigi, who doesn’t care for life’s minutiae (like paying the electric bill), tells her she moved the money; its whereabouts are none of Lorrie’s concern. However, Lorrie is used to assuming adult responsibility in the absence of competent adult care, and she takes it upon herself to locate the trust fund. Her search reveals family secrets that go much deeper and farther back than the missing money. At times, Lorrie seems more concerned with her budding romance with Charlie, the local senator’s heartthrob son, than locating the money (and being able to pay the bills), but she’s still a teenager, after all. Astute readers will realize what's going on before Lorrie does, but the how and the why are so intriguing they’ll read until way past bedtime.
Riveting and heartbreaking. (Fiction. 12-18)Pub Date: Sept. 8, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4197-1641-6
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: June 28, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2015
An ode to the children of migrants who have been taken away.
A Mexican American boy takes on heavy responsibilities when his family is torn apart.
Mateo’s life is turned upside down the day U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents show up unsuccessfully seeking his Pa at his New York City bodega. The Garcias live in fear until the day both parents are picked up; his Pa is taken to jail and his Ma to a detention center. The adults around Mateo offer support to him and his 7-year-old sister, Sophie, however, he knows he is now responsible for caring for her and the bodega as well as trying to survive junior year—that is, if he wants to fulfill his dream to enter the drama program at the Tisch School of the Arts and become an actor. Mateo’s relationships with his friends Kimmie and Adam (a potential love interest) also suffer repercussions as he keeps his situation a secret. Kimmie is half Korean (her other half is unspecified) and Adam is Italian American; Mateo feels disconnected from them, less American, and with worries they can’t understand. He talks himself out of choosing a safer course of action, a decision that deepens the story. Mateo’s self-awareness and inner monologue at times make him seem older than 16, and, with significant turmoil in the main plot, some side elements feel underdeveloped. Aleman’s narrative joins the ranks of heart-wrenching stories of migrant families who have been separated.
An ode to the children of migrants who have been taken away. (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: May 4, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-7595-5605-8
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 22, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
There’s not much plot here, but readers will relish the opportunity to climb inside Autumn’s head.
The finely drawn characters capture readers’ attention in this debut.
Autumn and Phineas, nicknamed Finny, were born a week apart; their mothers are still best friends. Growing up, Autumn and Finny were like peas in a pod despite their differences: Autumn is “quirky and odd,” while Finny is “sweet and shy and everyone like[s] him.” But in eighth grade, Autumn and Finny stop being friends due to an unexpected kiss. They drift apart and find new friends, but their friendship keeps asserting itself at parties, shared holiday gatherings and random encounters. In the summer after graduation, Autumn and Finny reconnect and are finally ready to be more than friends. But on August 8, everything changes, and Autumn has to rely on all her strength to move on. Autumn’s coming-of-age is sensitively chronicled, with a wide range of experiences and events shaping her character. Even secondary characters are well-rounded, with their own histories and motivations.
There’s not much plot here, but readers will relish the opportunity to climb inside Autumn’s head. (Fiction. 14 & up)Pub Date: April 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4022-7782-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
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