Unhoused kids deserve a better exploration of their challenges and successes.
A mix of anecdotes, news excerpts, statistics, and descriptions of social programs comprises this investigation into homelessness.
Sections of this brief overview cover such topics as “Homelessness Among the LGBTQ Community,” “Hunger, Abuse, and Mental Illness,” and “Homeless and in College.” Stock photos of attractive, ethnically diverse teens suffering attractively keep the material visually interesting. A few examples present the ubiquity of homelessness among even the somewhat famous: a former presidential candidate’s husband, an American Idol contestant, a running back for the Oakland Raiders. The seriousness of the dangers is often weirdly elided. “The Failures of Foster Care” mentions foster parents who are “stern and demanding” and only vaguely hints at possible traumas encountered in that setting. Teens who come out, readers learn, may become homeless if “their news is met with disapproval,” a passive way of framing the rejection of young queer people by their families. Only human traffickers are presented as particularly scary. Given this relatively danger-free recitation of risks, it’s perhaps unsurprising that the work concludes that fixing homelessness will, in addition to support from the government and community organizations, “take a change in attitude by many people who are homeless” who “need to stop thinking of their situations as hopeless and to adopt the attitudes of” formerly homeless individuals who have achieved success, a message that reads like victim blaming.
Unhoused kids deserve a better exploration of their challenges and successes. (source notes, organizations and websites, further research, index, picture credits) (Nonfiction. 12-16)Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-67820-170-8
Page Count: 64
Publisher: ReferencePoint Press
Review Posted Online: July 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Congolese-American Sophie makes a harrowing trek through a war-torn jungle to protect a young bonobo.
On her way to spend the summer at the bonobo sanctuary her mother runs, 14-year-old Sophie rescues a sickly baby bonobo from a trafficker. Though her Congolese mother is not pleased Sophie paid for the ape, she is proud that Sophie works to bond with Otto, the baby. A week before Sophie's to return home to her father in Miami, her mother must take advantage
of a charter flight to relocate some apes, and she leaves Sophie with Otto and the sanctuary workers. War breaks out, and after missing a U.N. flight out, Sophie must hide herself and Otto from violent militants and starving villagers. Unable to take Otto out of the country, she decides finding her mother hundreds of miles to the north is her only choice. Schrefer jumps from his usual teen suspense to craft this well-researched tale of jungle survival set during a fictional conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Realistic characters (ape and human) deal with disturbing situations described in graphic, but never gratuitous detail. The lessons Sophie learns about her childhood home, love and what it means to be endangered will resonate with readers.
Even if some hairbreadth escapes test credulity, this is a great next read for fans of our nearest ape cousins or survival adventure. (map, author's note, author Q&A) (Adventure. 12-16)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-545-16576-1
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Oct. 2, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Unhappy teens in need of a lecture on thinking positively and being more in touch with one’s emotions need look no further.
Mangan presents in as many chapters a 20-point strategy that ranges from “Have a Positive Attitude” and “Cut Your Problems Into Pieces” to “Practice Being Patient” and “Appreciate the Value of Your Hard Work.” She blends private exercises like visualizing forgiveness with comments on selective attention, “problematic procrastination” and other bad habits, reframing situations to put them in different lights, “changing shoes” to understand others better and subjecting feelings to rational analysis. Though the author has a graduate degree and years of practice in clinical psychology, she offers generalities and generic situations rather than specific cases from her experience, and the book is devoid of references to further resources or even an index. Superficial advice (“If you are unsafe or are around kids that you know are bullies, just walk away”) combines with techniques that are unlikely to interest readers (“Make a song verse out of your list of helpful thoughts”). The author also makes questionable claims about the mind-body connection (“When you smile, your body sends a signal to your brain that you are happy”) and fails to make a case for regarding side forays into food habits and environmental concerns as relevant to her topic. Obvious issues and common-sense advice, unpersuasively presented. (Self-help. 12-15)
Pub Date: Sept. 15, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-4338-1040-4
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Magination/American Psychological Association
Review Posted Online: Aug. 9, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2011
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