This book soars: Huck Finn has met his match in a wildly appealing, smart, and courageous girl.
Mary Jane, a side character from Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, takes center stage.
Celebrated scientist and bestselling adult nonfiction author Jahren has chosen as the subject of her fiction debut the girl Huck Finn describes as “just full of sand…beauty—and goodness too.” Fourteen-year-old Mary Jane is content to live with her mother and grandfather on the Minnesota frontier, shifting from a remote fur-trading outpost in winter to the comforts of Fort Snelling in summer. But when her aunt begs for help, Mary Jane’s mother sends her south via a Mississippi River steamboat, first to Fort Edwards, 400 miles away, and then, in the company of her orphaned cousins, Susan and Joanna, to their new guardian in Greenville, Mississippi. Like her eventual friend Huck Finn, Mary Jane finds adventure, true friendship, and scoundrels on the river. The peripatetic nature of her journey allows for cameo appearances by a wide variety of other characters. White Christian Mary Jane has sympathetic encounters with an Ojibwe family, persecuted members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and a Jewish peddler, among many others. She meets Sugar and Candy, an enslaved mother and daughter, and her attempts to help them carefully call out white saviorism. Jahren has done a heroic amount of research but most of all has told a cracking good story.
This book soars: Huck Finn has met his match in a wildly appealing, smart, and courageous girl. (map, family tree, author's note, suggested reading) (Historical fiction. 12-16)Pub Date: June 25, 2024
ISBN: 9780593484111
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: March 23, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Heartbreaking, historical, and a little bit hopeful.
January 1945: as Russians advance through East Prussia, four teens’ lives converge in hopes of escape.
Returning to the successful formula of her highly lauded debut, Between Shades of Gray (2011), Sepetys combines research (described in extensive backmatter) with well-crafted fiction to bring to life another little-known story: the sinking (from Soviet torpedoes) of the German ship Wilhelm Gustloff. Told in four alternating voices—Lithuanian nurse Joana, Polish Emilia, Prussian forger Florian, and German soldier Alfred—with often contemporary cadences, this stints on neither history nor fiction. The three sympathetic refugees and their motley companions (especially an orphaned boy and an elderly shoemaker) make it clear that while the Gustloff was a German ship full of German civilians and soldiers during World War II, its sinking was still a tragedy. Only Alfred, stationed on the Gustloff, lacks sympathy; almost a caricature, he is self-delusional, unlikable, a Hitler worshiper. As a vehicle for exposition, however, and a reminder of Germany’s role in the war, he serves an invaluable purpose that almost makes up for the mustache-twirling quality of his petty villainy. The inevitability of the ending (including the loss of several characters) doesn’t change its poignancy, and the short chapters and slowly revealed back stories for each character guarantee the pages keep turning.
Heartbreaking, historical, and a little bit hopeful. (author’s note, research and sources, maps) (Historical fiction. 12-16)Pub Date: Feb. 2, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-399-16030-1
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2015
PROFILES
Despite some missteps, this will appeal to readers who enjoy a fresh and realistic teen voice.
A teenage, not-so-lonely loner endures the wilds of high school in Austin, Texas.
Norris Kaplan, the protagonist of Philippe’s debut novel, is a hypersweaty, uber-snarky black, Haitian, French-Canadian pushing to survive life in his new school. His professor mom’s new tenure-track job transplants Norris mid–school year, and his biting wit and sarcasm are exposed through his cataloging of his new world in a field guide–style burn book. He’s greeted in his new life by an assortment of acquaintances, Liam, who is white and struggling with depression; Maddie, a self-sacrificing white cheerleader with a heart of gold; and Aarti, his Indian-American love interest who offers connection. Norris’ ego, fueled by his insecurities, often gets in the way of meaningful character development. The scenes showcasing his emotional growth are too brief and, despite foreshadowing, the climax falls flat because he still gets incredible personal access to people he’s hurt. A scene where Norris is confronted by his mother for getting drunk and belligerent with a white cop is diluted by his refusal or inability to grasp the severity of the situation and the resultant minor consequences. The humor is spot-on, as is the representation of the black diaspora; the opportunity for broader conversations about other topics is there, however, the uneven buildup of detailed, meaningful exchanges and the glibness of Norris’ voice detract.
Despite some missteps, this will appeal to readers who enjoy a fresh and realistic teen voice. (Fiction. 13-16)Pub Date: Jan. 8, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-06-282411-0
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Oct. 14, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
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