Difficult, harsh, and worthy of attention.
A young woman survives a brutal post–World War II work camp in this title that continues the series that began with 2015’s Red Stone and is loosely based on Goldstone’s mother’s experiences.
The book opens with Katya’s younger brother Albert’s brief furlough home to Königsberg for his 24th birthday. It’s November 1944, and Albert’s a Wehrmacht soldier. While the official word at the munitions factory where Katya works is that victory is near, Albert knows the Germans are losing. Katya, Albert, and their sisters are kulak orphans, ethnic German refugees from Stalin’s USSR. When the Soviet army invades East Prussia a few months later, Katya flees only to be captured and sent with other German women to a work camp in the Ural Mountains where her fluency in Russian means she’s forced to translate for her captors in addition to enduring backbreaking work, near starvation, and typhus. When Katya kills and eats one of the crows that haunt the camp, she finds a source of hope that may help her survive. Goldstone paints the horrors of war vividly and comprehensively; neither the Germans nor the Russians are the good guys. Katya, treated brutally by both sides, doesn’t seem to hold to any political ideology, although she challenges Nazi belief in Aryan superiority. The number of times Katya encounters people from her past strains credulity but not to a breaking point.
Difficult, harsh, and worthy of attention. (map, author’s note, glossary, list of places, supplemental reading) (Historical fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-55380-665-3
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Ronsdale Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2022
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
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
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