Equal parts heartbreaking and heartwarming.
As 13-year-old Ellie Cowan faces high school, her relationships undergo difficult changes.
Months after the events of Time To Roll (2023), Ellie, Coralee, and Bert are entering “the grand finale of middle school.” Ellie dreads high school, with new therapists and new classrooms that might not be wheelchair accessible. Even worse, Bert, for whom she’s developed “fish-swishy” romantic feelings, might be attending boarding school in Kentucky next year—nine hours from Oklahoma. And while Mema always has wise advice, Grandpa’s worsening Alzheimer’s disease is taking a toll on the family. Ellie just wants everything to stay the same. Sumner poignantly explores complicated emotions ranging from crushes to grief, and readers will sympathize with Ellie as she struggles to express herself. The depiction of Grandpa’s decline is particularly heart-wrenching. The bond between the friend trio remains strong, and Ellie and Bert’s relationship brims with sweetness. Unfortunately, the author’s handling of bullying is less successful; bullies’ violent treatment of Bert, who’s cued as neurodivergent, goes unreported, setting a troubling example for bullied readers and their peers. Though Bert retains his uber-logical charm, his lack of self-confidence remains largely unaddressed, which is particularly disappointing, given the increased focus on his character. While his persecution may, sadly, reflect reality, readers will likely wish his character arc would more clearly convey that he realizes he doesn’t deserve to be bullied. Those facing life changes like Ellie’s will find her experiences resonant and, ultimately, comforting, however. Most characters read white.
Equal parts heartbreaking and heartwarming. (Fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Oct. 22, 2024
ISBN: 9781665947848
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: Aug. 3, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2024
Riveting, inspiring, and sometimes hilarious.
If you made a recording to be heard by the aliens who found the iPod, what would you record?
For 11-year-old Alex Petroski, it's easy. He records everything. He records the story of how he travels to New Mexico to a rocket festival with his dog, Carl Sagan, and his rocket. He records finding out that a man with the same name and birthday as his dead father has an address in Las Vegas. He records eating at Johnny Rockets for the first time with his new friends, who are giving him a ride to find his dead father (who might not be dead!), and losing Carl Sagan in the wilds of Las Vegas, and discovering he has a half sister. He even records his own awful accident. Cheng delivers a sweet, soulful debut novel with a brilliant, refreshing structure. His characters manage to come alive through the “transcript” of Alex’s iPod recording, an odd medium that sounds like it would be confusing but really works. Taking inspiration from the Voyager Golden Record released to space in 1977, Alex, who explains he has “light brown skin,” records all the important moments of a journey that takes him from a family of two to a family of plenty.
Riveting, inspiring, and sometimes hilarious. (Fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Feb. 28, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-399-18637-0
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 18, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2016
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
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