An insightful read that highlights the struggles and strides young people make toward self-awareness.
Life is a marathon, not a sprint.
Don’t tell that to Grace Eller, whose one-track mind is focused squarely on academic achievement. When she’s bested for both the creative writing and “Eighth-Grade Top Scholar” awards by friend-turned-rival Jonah Perkins, her sense of self is battered. What’s an overachiever who fails to achieve? With help from older sister Celia and cousin Avery, Grace comes up with a summer goals list. She’s poised for a journey of self-exploration: Babysitting Teddy (her dad’s girlfriend’s 4-year-old son), taking an ungraded creative writing class, learning to embrace her naturally curly hair, and training for a half-marathon are all activities that uproot Grace from her comfort zone. She discovers that opening herself up to new experiences allows her to let other people in and empowers her to redefine success on her own terms. This well-paced novel is a balm for readers who may be struggling with senses of self that are narrowly defined by grades or athletic performance. The supportive sibling and cousin dynamics enrich the narrative by finding the complementary middle ground in a juxtaposition of opposites. The authentically awkward navigation of a blossoming romance fuels Grace’s journey of emotional development, while an amicable post-divorce parental relationship tenderly reveals the uncomfortable truth that parents are people, too. Most characters are cued white; there’s racial diversity among the background characters.
An insightful read that highlights the struggles and strides young people make toward self-awareness. (Fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: April 9, 2024
ISBN: 9781419768750
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2024
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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A captivating book situated in present-day discourse around the refugee crisis, featuring two boys who stand by their high...
Two parallel stories, one of a Syrian boy from Aleppo fleeing war, and another of a white American boy, son of a NATO contractor, dealing with the challenges of growing up, intersect at a house in Brussels.
Ahmed lost his father while crossing the Mediterranean. Alone and broke in Europe, he takes things into his own hands to get to safety but ends up having to hide in the basement of a residential house. After months of hiding, he is discovered by Max, a boy of similar age and parallel high integrity and courage, who is experiencing his own set of troubles learning a new language, moving to a new country, and being teased at school. In an unexpected turn of events, the two boys and their new friends Farah, a Muslim Belgian girl, and Oscar, a white Belgian boy, successfully scheme for Ahmed to go to school while he remains in hiding the rest of the time. What is at stake for Ahmed is immense, and so is the risk to everyone involved. Marsh invites art and history to motivate her protagonists, drawing parallels to gentiles who protected Jews fleeing Nazi terror and citing present-day political news. This well-crafted and suspenseful novel touches on the topics of refugees and immigrant integration, terrorism, Islam, Islamophobia, and the Syrian war with sensitivity and grace.
A captivating book situated in present-day discourse around the refugee crisis, featuring two boys who stand by their high values in the face of grave risk and succeed in drawing goodwill from others. (Historical fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Aug. 7, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-250-30757-6
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: June 10, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2018
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