An empowering telling of a journey to healing.
When white doctors neglect the Siksikaitsitapi (Blackfoot) community’s needs, a young man discovers his calling to be a doctor, but the path is not always straightforward.
As a child in 1990s Alberta, Ryan Fox visited the medical clinic in Cardston, where he and his mother were treated dismissively. Growing up on the rez, Ryan attended school in a nearby majority-white town, where Indigenous people experienced pervasive racism. Fortunately, Ryan’s family’s pride in him and his connection to his community had a profound impact. A ceremony he attended with his father, in which a man who’d formerly abused alcohol received a headdress from elders in recognition that he had begun “to heal himself, and now he has duties, responsibilities, and obligations to help the community heal too,” serves as both warning and foretelling of Ryan’s life journey. Away at college in Lethbridge, Ryan experiences peer pressure to drink and party—but he falls in love with a young woman who’s a serious student. Along with Ryan’s loving, incarcerated uncle, she helps him recommit to his goals, despite his despair over his falling grades. With guidance from the Creator, Ryan returns to his path, eventually becoming a doctor and working to support First Nations communities. The accessible text consists primarily of dialogue and is complemented by skillfully composed, thought-provoking illustrations that show the impact of painful topics like substance abuse, medical assault, and racism against Indigenous peoples.
An empowering telling of a journey to healing. (Graphic fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2024
ISBN: 9781553799245
Page Count: 64
Publisher: HighWater Press
Review Posted Online: Dec. 6, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2024
PERSPECTIVES
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
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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