Starts out light, but the plot definitely thickens as the story explores relationships and mental health.
His mother’s sudden disappearance just 10 days before Christmas adds extra suspense to a young London sleuth’s investigation.
Not a conventional whodunit, though it opens like one, Moloney’s debut tucks in clues aplenty to what’s really going on so that alert readers should have little trouble staying ahead of mercurial, stubbornly obtuse Jake—whose narrative, liberally punctuated with words in bold capital letters, chronicles sudden violent mood swings; strange behavior from his Polish best friend, Lukas, and others at school; frustratingly evasive answers to his queries from grown-ups; and the sudden arrival of his crusty grandma to watch over him and his excessively dramatic teenage sister. And, by the time Jake has crossed off his list every possible place his mum might have gone—except the hospital—his own selective amnesia has faded enough to allow him to accept what he, like everyone else, really knew all along: that she’s had another breakdown and been checked into a psychiatric facility. Though even mum, during a visit, can’t tell Jake for sure when she’ll be coming home to stay, the author closes on a hopeful note with hugs, tears, and two festive multifamily Christmas dinners. The conversational tone and authentically childlike voice add humor and reader appeal. Jake’s mum is cued as White; his father, who lives in a different flat on the same housing estate, has knee-length locs.
Starts out light, but the plot definitely thickens as the story explores relationships and mental health. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Nov. 8, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-78269-352-9
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Pushkin Children’s Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2022
Charming, poignant, and thoughtfully woven.
An aspiring scientist and a budding artist become friends and help each other with dream projects.
Unfolding in mid-1980s Sacramento, California, this story stars 12-year-olds Rosalind and Benjamin as first-person narrators in alternating chapters. Ro’s father, a fellow space buff, was killed by a drunk driver; the rocket they were working on together lies unfinished in her closet. As for Benji, not only has his best friend, Amir, moved away, but the comic book holding the clue for locating his dad is also missing. Along with their profound personal losses, the protagonists share a fixation with the universe’s intriguing potential: Ro decides to complete the rocket and hopes to launch mementos of her father into outer space while Benji’s conviction that aliens and UFOs are real compels his imagination and creativity as an artist. An accident in science class triggers a chain of events forcing Benji and Ro, who is new to the school, to interact and unintentionally learn each other’s secrets. They resolve to find Benji’s dad—a famous comic-book artist—and partner to finish Ro’s rocket for the science fair. Together, they overcome technical, scheduling, and geographical challenges. Readers will be drawn in by amusing and fantastical elements in the comic book theme, high emotional stakes that arouse sympathy, and well-drawn character development as the protagonists navigate life lessons around grief, patience, self-advocacy, and standing up for others. Ro is biracial (Chinese/White); Benji is White.
Charming, poignant, and thoughtfully woven. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Jan. 12, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-06-300888-5
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A deftly told story that dramatizes how Danes appointed themselves bodyguards—not only for their king, who was in the habit...
The author of the Anastasia books as well as more serious fiction (Rabble Starkey, 1987) offers her first historical fiction—a story about the escape of the Jews from Denmark in 1943.
Five years younger than Lisa in Carol Matas' Lisa's War (1989), Annemarie Johansen has, at 10, known three years of Nazi occupation. Though ever cautious and fearful of the ubiquitous soldiers, she is largely unaware of the extent of the danger around her; the Resistance kept even its participants safer by telling them as little as possible, and Annemarie has never been told that her older sister Lise died in its service. When the Germans plan to round up the Jews, the Johansens take in Annemarie's friend, Ellen Rosen, and pretend she is their daughter; later, they travel to Uncle Hendrik's house on the coast, where the Rosens and other Jews are transported by fishing boat to Sweden. Apart from Lise's offstage death, there is little violence here; like Annemarie, the reader is protected from the full implications of events—but will be caught up in the suspense and menace of several encounters with soldiers and in Annemarie's courageous run as courier on the night of the escape. The book concludes with the Jews' return, after the war, to homes well kept for them by their neighbors.
A deftly told story that dramatizes how Danes appointed themselves bodyguards—not only for their king, who was in the habit of riding alone in Copenhagen, but for their Jews. (Historical fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: April 1, 1989
ISBN: 0547577095
Page Count: 156
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: Oct. 17, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1989
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