Girls who are waiting for further news of Amy and Laura will be happy to find that Mama is able to come home from the hospital after a year's stay. Amy, lively and pragmatic, rushes to the wheelchair to tell Mama all about her problems. Laura, however, is appalled by the heavy woman with gray in her hair and a clumsy steel brace: this is not the Mama she had pictured for so long. And Mama seems to have changed inside, too. When Laura, a conscientious monitor, reports Amy for laughing and talking on the stairs, Mama condemns her for disgracing HER OWN SISTER and rejects the principle involved. For the first time in her life, Laura knows that Mama is wrong. Warned not to upset Mama by controversy, she begins to withdraw from the family. Only when the two girls erupt in a slapping and scratching battle does Mama realize the wall they have built around her and she begins to assume her former place in family affairs. Laura accepts Amy's newly-discovered smartness, which rivals her own, and finds out that she is becoming as attractive in her own way as Amy. Individual incidents are the happy heart of the story: Amy torn between naming sweet, steadfast Rosa or mercurial, daring Cynthia as her Best Friend; Laura struggling to stay on a bike and her elation when she succeeds. This does not have the structural unity of Laura's Luck, but girls who have identified with Amy and Laura in their earlier ups-and-downs will not be disappointed. Amy and Laura remain individuals struggling to reconcile their identity with the inward and outward pressures of growing up. Contemporary, lively, questioning—a superior serial.
Pub Date: Nov. 4, 1966
ISBN: 0595175929
Page Count: 172
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: May 8, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1966
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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