Unabashedly, determinedly positive, with truly comical banter and the heroic climax of a teen movie.
A White high school dancer, unable to afford a prestigious summer opportunity taught by an amazing, fat dance director, discovers burlesque.
Eighteen-year-old Addie loves her friends and lives for dance. In the performing arts track at the Michigan boarding school where she’s one of the few scholarship kids, Addie’s flourished far from her thinness-obsessed mother in Florida. She wins a spot in a competitive program for aspiring dancers in Milan, with a director who’s “dramatically, unapologetically fat, and perfect.” But Addie doesn’t win the program’s scholarship, and how is she going to get $6,000? Her BFFs (a Black lesbian Instagram influencer; a queer Korean American boy who embraces gender as a spectrum; and a joyful White girl) convince Addie to let them help raise the money by dancing. Sexy dancing, of course. But in their sex-negative, misogynist high school, this fundraiser’s going to have to be secret. Though bigotry against fat people batters against Addie’s self-confidence (from the gross boys who neg her to her mother’s well-meaning but abusive obsession with diets), her determination to love herself and claim her fatness are empowering. There’s no hidden message of avoiding food, no incidental weight loss paralleling Addie’s growth, just the conviction of one girl and her excellent friends that they are awesome and powerful and sexy.
Unabashedly, determinedly positive, with truly comical banter and the heroic climax of a teen movie. (Fiction. 13-18)Pub Date: Dec. 7, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-250-25217-3
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Sept. 28, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
BOOK REVIEW
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