A worthwhile and sprawling compilation.
The agonies and ecstasies of adolescence are relayed through the lens of multicultural identities.
Exclusively featuring multiracial and/or multicultural authors, this anthology reflects the painful awkwardness of a bifurcated existence while celebrating a boundless self. Pubescent agonies are in abundance here, from the humiliation of an unrequited crush to the challenges of wrestling with menstrual products. Overlaying them all is the added feeling of isolation from never quite fitting in, sometimes not even in one’s own family. A few stories offer a lighter touch—Goldy Moldavsky’s “Hispanic Jewish Bingo” has Jewish Latino characters debating the ethics of cheating at the synagogue’s charity casino night, and Karen Yin’s “My Kinda Sorta Badass Move” finds a queer Chinese American coming to a new understanding with her tough-as-nails grandmother. While the anthology is packed with acclaimed authors, including Erin Entrada Kelly, Jasmine Warga, Torrey Maldonado, and Randy Ribay, emergent authors like Nasuġraq Rainey Hopson hold their own. Hopson’s “The Perils of Beige” astutely captures smarmy, condescending faux collegiality at a speech and debate competition from the perspective of an African American Inupiaq novice. Vastly different voices show the breadth of multicultural identities, but the collection doesn’t always feel cohesive. There is also a broad range in maturity among the teens depicted: Some are younger-sounding middle school students while other protagonists feel significantly older, making this a collection readers may dip into rather than reading cover to cover.
A worthwhile and sprawling compilation. (author bios) (Anthology. 12-18)Pub Date: June 13, 2023
ISBN: 9781335428615
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Inkyard Press
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2023
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
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
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