Too many miscues hamper this novel’s potential to create a believable and endearing teen protagonist.
Gardner’s YA novel follows a 13-year-old girl whose world is turned upside down when her terminally ill father sends her away to live with her uncle.
Katie McCabe is a troublemaker who causes her single-parent father, Ron—the town’s sheriff—seemingly endless strife. When she and her friend, Tommy, accidentally set a neighbor’s shed on fire while smoking cigarettes and drinking alcohol, her dad does the unimaginable: he arranges for her to live with her uncle, Charlie, and his family. As Katie reels from the devastating news, she discovers her father’s true reason for the decision—he has terminal cancer. The strength of this story is in the emotional intensity and complexity of Katie’s painful journey of self-discovery. The author explores the turbulent teen years masterfully, examining numerous themes that will surely resonate with young readers, including bullying, dealing with grief and loss, first love, and finding one’s place in the world. Additionally, Gardner does a good job of capturing the personality of a 13-year-old, particularly through the deft use of first-person POV; When Katie notes the school principal’s crooked bow tie, she thinks to herself: “He didn’t need any help being dorkified.” The novel’s thematic power, however, is undermined by its complete lack of specificity when it comes to time and place. Readers are given no indicators of when the story takes place or where it is set, which lends the narrative a groundless feel. This nebulosity gives rise to numerous questions that take the reader out of the story: Why doesn’t anyone have cellphones, although other electronic devices are referenced? Where are the security cameras at the school? Where is it commonplace to see a student on horseback at a middle school? Finally, the contrived nature of some of the plot points in the latter half of the novel rankles; to say the story’s events defy believability is an understatement.
Too many miscues hamper this novel’s potential to create a believable and endearing teen protagonist.Pub Date: Oct. 3, 2023
ISBN: 978-1645480891
Page Count: 252
Publisher: Vesuvian Books
Review Posted Online: July 20, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
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
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