Beautifully written and powerfully uplifting.
A teen gets a job organizing and cataloging a chronically ill author’s possessions, an experience that helps her find her voice as a writer.
Pulitzer Prize–winning author Elsie McAllister has a “permanent A+” reputation thanks to her one novel, which is “read in every high school” in America. The recalcitrant and reclusive older woman has two goals: safeguarding her privacy and ensuring that the person she hires will do exactly as she wishes with her belongings. Holiday Burton’s desire to earn enough to go to New Zealand and work on farms with ex-girlfriend Maya is an incentive to take the well-paid job. Both McAllister and Holi have been manipulated by male gatekeepers who had their own selfish reasons to stunt each woman’s creativity. While sorting through McAllister’s possessions, Holi discovers secrets from her past that were suppressed to make way for her “Great American Novel.” Holi sees an echo of her own artistic self-doubts and vulnerability in the face of a similar exploitative power dynamic. Mason-Black’s prose sparkles with poetic beauty as Holi engages in introspective musings about collective mourning and how individual healing is possible only in community. The stunning descriptions bring vitality to and convey the languid beauty of the Amherst, Massachusetts, setting. This striking work shows the power of intergenerational relationships to fortify queer artists against erasure. The protagonists present as white.
Beautifully written and powerfully uplifting. (content note, resources) (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: May 6, 2025
ISBN: 9781728493299
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Carolrhoda Lab
Review Posted Online: Jan. 18, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: today
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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