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A BIRD IN THE AIR MEANS WE CAN STILL BREATHE

Heavy, important, powerful and evergreen; remembers kids during the time when the world stopped.

Young people and their families try to survive during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Two city girls with island roots,” Jamaican Electra and Trinidadian Hyacinth, are best friends whose voices serve as the book’s chorus, threading together individual stories and adding context, reflection, and direction. Their interspersed conversations are readers’ touchpoints for poems (in varied forms, including haiku and acrostic) and prose (which encompasses a letter, email, and a to-do list). Together the entries evoke the experiences of teens in New York City who are searching for love, hope, community, and liberation amid the fear and uncertainty of the pandemic. Browne’s use of varied formats and content offers a fresh and incisive look at the impact of the pandemic on young people’s lives as they dated, worked, attended school, and grew up while their world shut down around them. Grief becomes a palpable presence, as heightened responsibilities and innumerable losses demand from teens levels of grace, honesty, and care that many adults bowed under. The characters’ voices feel as authentic as if they were next to you—or, maybe, six feet away—close enough to feel the wrenching pain of hoping a grandmother lives long enough for a vaccine to be available, close enough to understand the ecstasy of a first kiss after months with no physical contact.

Heavy, important, powerful and evergreen; remembers kids during the time when the world stopped. (author’s note) (Fiction. 13-18)

Pub Date: March 11, 2025

ISBN: 9780593486474

Page Count: 160

Publisher: Crown

Review Posted Online: Dec. 12, 2024

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2025

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IF HE HAD BEEN WITH ME

There’s not much plot here, but readers will relish the opportunity to climb inside Autumn’s head.

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  • New York Times Bestseller

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

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INDIVISIBLE

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

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