A would-be star athlete faces bullying and racism in this traumatic story that’s given an optimistic spin.
A biracial Minnesota seventh grader’s baseball dreams are derailed by racism.
Among other Black-positive values instilled in him and his sister, Wyatt Cash and his family (his white mom included) speak Swahili at home, largely because of his father’s complicated upbringing in a real-life Afrocentric community that was tragically bombed by the Philadelphia police in 1985. While his dad isn’t forthcoming about his past, Wyatt recognizes that the way his dad handles anxiety and stress—by manifesting plumes of mysterious smoke—may be connected to it. When smoke starts coming out of Wyatt’s hands, too, he learns it’s a family thing, just as the racist microaggressions he’s experiencing from his teammates, coach, so-called friends, and school officials mirror anti-Black prejudices his family has faced for generations. A remarkable counselor, unfazed by these supernatural symptoms, thoughtfully explains that epigenetics can intersect with racialized trauma, and work must be done to resolve this legacy. The story’s rich fabulism and scientific grounding don’t soften how truly difficult it is to witness Wyatt’s being broken by bigotry; the bookish student-athlete’s dreams are deferred and his personality changed by grinning white supremacists. The optimistic conclusion may not compensate for how disheartening and triggering the series of hate crimes faced by this tween are. Still, Wyatt has a strong family, and some key friendships eventually see some much-needed growth.
A would-be star athlete faces bullying and racism in this traumatic story that’s given an optimistic spin. (author’s note, discussion questions, works cited) (Fiction. 11-14)Pub Date: Aug. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9798765608296
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Carolrhoda
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic.
Chainani works an elaborate sea change akin to Gregory Maguire’s Wicked (1995), though he leaves the waters muddied.
Every four years, two children, one regarded as particularly nice and the other particularly nasty, are snatched from the village of Gavaldon by the shadowy School Master to attend the divided titular school. Those who survive to graduate become major or minor characters in fairy tales. When it happens to sweet, Disney princess–like Sophie and her friend Agatha, plain of features, sour of disposition and low of self-esteem, they are both horrified to discover that they’ve been dropped not where they expect but at Evil and at Good respectively. Gradually—too gradually, as the author strings out hundreds of pages of Hogwarts-style pranks, classroom mishaps and competitions both academic and romantic—it becomes clear that the placement wasn’t a mistake at all. Growing into their true natures amid revelations and marked physical changes, the two spark escalating rivalry between the wings of the school. This leads up to a vicious climactic fight that sees Good and Evil repeatedly switching sides. At this point, readers are likely to feel suddenly left behind, as, thanks to summary deus ex machina resolutions, everything turns out swell(ish).
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic. (Fantasy. 11-13)Pub Date: May 14, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-06-210489-2
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
A sly, side-splitting hoot from start to finish.
The dreary prospect of spending a lifetime making caskets instead of wonderful inventions prompts a young orphan to snatch up his little sister and flee. Where? To the circus, of course.
Fortunately or otherwise, John and 6-year-old Page join up with Boz—sometime human cannonball for the seedy Wandering Wayfarers and a “vertically challenged” trickster with a fantastic gift for sowing chaos. Alas, the budding engineer barely has time to settle in to begin work on an experimental circus wagon powered by chicken poop and dubbed (with questionable forethought) the Autopsy. The hot pursuit of malign and indomitable Great-Aunt Beauregard, the Coggins’ only living relative, forces all three to leave the troupe for further flights and misadventures. Teele spins her adventure around a sturdy protagonist whose love for his little sister is matched only by his fierce desire for something better in life for them both and tucks in an outstanding supporting cast featuring several notably strong-minded, independent women (Page, whose glare “would kill spiders dead,” not least among them). Better yet, in Boz she has created a scene-stealing force of nature, a free spirit who’s never happier than when he’s stirring up mischief. A climactic clutch culminating in a magnificently destructive display of fireworks leaves the Coggin sibs well-positioned for bright futures. (Illustrations not seen.)
A sly, side-splitting hoot from start to finish. (Adventure. 11-13)Pub Date: April 12, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-06-234510-3
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Walden Pond Press/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
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