An at-risk teenager finds love while skating the ragged edge of disaster, in this offbeat romance from the author of Being Youngest (1997). Desperate to stay out of juvie, Cosmos opts for an alternative sentence, leaving his Seattle-area home, band, and girlfriend for a year of high school at the Dutch Corners Christian Academy, near the strait-laced Iowa farm community in which his father had been raised. Knowing full well that he’d better keep his nose shiny clean, Cosmos tries to hide his wilder impulses behind a bland persona (see title)—not easy, especially when he comes under suspicion for a series of thefts at school just as he and born-again class leader Cherlyn are raising hackles by publicly falling madly in love. Readers will find plenty to like in this star-crossed pair, who alternate lens-fogging bouts of making out with honest, forthright discussions of their differences that are clearly fueled by genuine mutual respect. Cherlyn is not a caricature or a mouthpiece for the author, but a complex character with a simple faith, fully able to distinguish between God’s expectations and those of her community, sensible but not afraid of pushing boundaries. Heynen keeps the tone light with hilariously over-the-top imagery—Cosmos perceives the feedlot odors floating through his bedroom window one summer night as “a three-layered stench cake”—provides a supporting cast of surprisingly (at least to Cosmos) tolerant adults, throws his protagonist into one potential catastrophe after another, and wraps it all up on a high note. A sweet, funny, passionate triumph. (Fiction. YA)
Pub Date: June 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-8050-6434-6
Page Count: 280
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2000
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
A treat for mystery readers who enjoy being kept in suspense.
Everyone believes that Salil Singh killed his girlfriend, Andrea Bell, five years ago—except Pippa Fitz-Amobi.
Pip has known and liked Sal since childhood; he’d supported her when she was being bullied in middle school. For her senior capstone project, Pip researches the disappearance of former Fairview High student Andie, last seen on April 18, 2014, by her younger sister, Becca. The original investigation concluded with most of the evidence pointing to Sal, who was found dead in the woods, apparently by suicide. Andie’s body was never recovered, and Sal was assumed by most to be guilty of abduction and murder. Unable to ignore the gaps in the case, Pip sets out to prove Sal’s innocence, beginning with interviewing his younger brother, Ravi. With his help, Pip digs deeper, unveiling unsavory facts about Andie and the real reason Sal’s friends couldn’t provide him with an alibi. But someone is watching, and Pip may be in more danger than she realizes. Pip’s sleuthing is both impressive and accessible. Online articles about the case and interview transcripts are provided throughout, and Pip’s capstone logs offer insights into her thought processes as new evidence and suspects arise. Jackson’s debut is well-executed and surprises readers with a connective web of interesting characters and motives. Pip and Andie are white, and Sal is of Indian descent.
A treat for mystery readers who enjoy being kept in suspense. (Mystery. 14-18)Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-9636-0
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: Oct. 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2019
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