A tightly written, incredibly well-characterized work: bravo.
A small-town Irish teen grapples with a breakup and a family health scare, both of which affect her passion for music.
The book opens during a hot August on Daisy’s 18th birthday, although she feels too miserable to enjoy the celebration. David is her second love after the recorder, but now he’s broken up with her. When school begins, Daisy meets new classmate Flora, who’s from Dublin and has her own passion for music as an alto in the choir. Their personalities are complementary, and they form a special, fateful relationship that grows to become fierce and protective, leaving them both deeply changed. Flora helps Daisy find her way back to the recorder; she became overly absorbed with David (“Lost in his dreams / Neglecting my own”) and stopped practicing. Depressed about her father’s cancer diagnosis and guilty about letting down her supportive parents by abandoning the recorder, Daisy struggles to return to music. Daisy is a believable, complex narrator, sitting at that tentative place between growing and being grown up. She’s realistically both acutely self-aware and obliviously immature. The verse’s musicality is natural and a well-executed pairing with Daisy’s talent. Each poem has a brilliantly aligned (and briefly defined) musical term as its title, and many of the poems play meaningfully with shape and form. O’Brien accurately captures a time in a person’s life that is so fragile and overwhelming that it’s nearly impossible to get just right.
A tightly written, incredibly well-characterized work: bravo. (Verse fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: May 27, 2025
ISBN: 9781915071798
Page Count: 280
Publisher: Little Island
Review Posted Online: March 8, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2025
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
Immersive and engaging, despite some flaws, and destined to capture imaginations.
Magic, mystery, and love intertwine and invite in this newest take on the “enchanted circus” trope.
Sisters raised by their abusive father, a governor of a colonial backwater in a world vaguely reminiscent of the late 18th century, Scarlett and Donatella each long for something more. Scarlett, olive-skinned, dark of hair and attitude, longs for Caraval, the fabled, magical circus helmed by the possibly evil Master Legend Santos, while blonde, sunny Tella finds comfort in drink and the embraces of various men. A slightly awkward start, with inconsistencies of attitude and setting, rapidly smooths out when they, along with handsome “golden-brown” sailor Julian, flee to Caraval on the eve of Scarlett’s arranged marriage. Tella disappears, and Scarlett must navigate a nighttime world of magic to find her. Caraval delights the senses: beautiful and scary, described in luscious prose, this is a show readers will wish they could enter. Dresses can be purchased for secrets or days of life; clocks can become doors; bridges move: this is an inventive and original circus, laced with an edge of horror. A double love story, one sensual romance and the other sisterly loyalty, anchors the plot, but the real star here is Caraval and its secrets.
Immersive and engaging, despite some flaws, and destined to capture imaginations. (Fantasy. 14 & up)Pub Date: Jan. 31, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-250-09525-1
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Review Posted Online: Sept. 18, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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