A heartwarming journey.
A young immigrant from Uganda struggles to find his place in Canada.
Patrick “Ace” Katumba isn’t sure how to fit in with his new grade eight classmates in Toronto. Back home in Kampala, Ace had good friends, like soccer teammates Rodney and Ronan, to help him keep up his spirits, especially after his father passed away from cancer. Without those two by his side, school is much harder. There’s a popular boy, Jamie, who isn’t always friendly and makes ignorant, taunting statements about Africa, but he might be the key to Ace’s blending in, just like in the American movies he’s seen. Potential friends Dwayne, Lutti, and Ericksen warn Ace about Jamie, but Ace doubts that the popular kid could be that bad. Meanwhile, his mother and older sister, Olive, worry that Ace focuses too much on socializing rather than studying. With pressures mounting at home and at school, Ace worries that he’ll never be good enough for anyone. Kawooya’s debut novel flows smoothly and is full of charming personalities. The banter between Rodney and Ronan mirrors the playful teasing between Dwayne and Lutti. Many different characters among the multiracial cast offer Ace bits of wisdom that he benefits from. Although his mother sometimes seems like a one-note character, her story adds depth and realism that reflect the plight of many immigrants today.
A heartwarming journey. (author’s note) (Fiction. 12-15)Pub Date: March 1, 2024
ISBN: 9781459417519
Page Count: 160
Publisher: James Lorimer
Review Posted Online: Feb. 17, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2024
Despite the stale fat-to-curvy pattern, compelling world building with a Southern European, pseudo-Christian feel,...
Adventure drags our heroine all over the map of fantasyland while giving her the opportunity to use her smarts.
Elisa—Princess Lucero-Elisa de Riqueza of Orovalle—has been chosen for Service since the day she was born, when a beam of holy light put a Godstone in her navel. She's a devout reader of holy books and is well-versed in the military strategy text Belleza Guerra, but she has been kept in ignorance of world affairs. With no warning, this fat, self-loathing princess is married off to a distant king and is embroiled in political and spiritual intrigue. War is coming, and perhaps only Elisa's Godstone—and knowledge from the Belleza Guerra—can save them. Elisa uses her untried strategic knowledge to always-good effect. With a character so smart that she doesn't have much to learn, body size is stereotypically substituted for character development. Elisa’s "mountainous" body shrivels away when she spends a month on forced march eating rat, and thus she is a better person. Still, it's wonderfully refreshing to see a heroine using her brain to win a war rather than strapping on a sword and charging into battle.
Despite the stale fat-to-curvy pattern, compelling world building with a Southern European, pseudo-Christian feel, reminiscent of Naomi Kritzer's Fires of the Faithful (2002), keeps this entry fresh. (Fantasy. 12-14)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-06-202648-4
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2011
Characters to love, quips to snort at, insights to ponder: typical Spinelli.
For two teenagers, a small town’s annual cautionary ritual becomes both a life- and a death-changing experience.
On the second Wednesday in June, every eighth grader in Amber Springs, Pennsylvania, gets a black shirt, the name and picture of a teen killed the previous year through reckless behavior—and the silent treatment from everyone in town. Like many of his classmates, shy, self-conscious Robbie “Worm” Tarnauer has been looking forward to Dead Wed as a day for cutting loose rather than sober reflection…until he finds himself talking to a strange girl or, as she would have it, “spectral maiden,” only he can see or touch. Becca Finch is as surprised and confused as Worm, only remembering losing control of her car on an icy slope that past Christmas Eve. But being (or having been, anyway) a more outgoing sort, she sees their encounter as a sign that she’s got a mission. What follows, in a long conversational ramble through town and beyond, is a day at once ordinary yet rich in discovery and self-discovery—not just for Worm, but for Becca too, with a climactic twist that leaves both ready, or readier, for whatever may come next. Spinelli shines at setting a tongue-in-cheek tone for a tale with serious underpinnings, and as in Stargirl (2000), readers will be swept into the relationship that develops between this adolescent odd couple. Characters follow a White default.
Characters to love, quips to snort at, insights to ponder: typical Spinelli. (Fiction. 12-15)Pub Date: Aug. 3, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-30667-3
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 31, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2021
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