When Amy Stern and her family moved to their new flat she was so uncomfortable in her position as a newcomer she almost volunteered herself as a permanent steady ender on the jump rope of some neighboring children. Nine-year-old girls will recognize in her impulse the bottomless depth of Amy's desperation. The trouble with being a nine-year-old girl is that it takes most of the tenth year to get over it. The author follows Amy through her years of trial in a way that shows she's been there. The family scenes have the reality of relatives as they are rather than as the articles on child psychology that Amy's mother reads would have them be. The financially solid Uncle patronizes Amy's father, a very good man who has changed jobs often. The aunt, who comes to stay while Amy's mother is hospitalized after a fall, loves her nieces dearly, has lost all sympathy with children and her housecleaning is an heroic war in which Amy and her older sister often get swept aside. Amy, in her relationship with Laura, who is two years older, is the perfect rendering of the continuously irritated but ineradicable fondness of siblings who must share a bedroom. Amy learns to find her way through the social structure of the 4th grade, which will always be more arbitrary than that of cafe society, and reaches the stage where she can see sticking to her principles as more important than companions to walk home with. This is a very funny book that still offers readers valid insights into people and their behavior. Set near the and of the Depression, it is true to its time and true to the unchanging conditions of childhood.
Pub Date: May 22, 1964
ISBN: 0595175899
Page Count: 212
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: May 8, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1964
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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