Immensely likable characters on an enthralling and entertaining journey.
A group of high schoolers deals with mishaps and disasters six months before graduation in this coming-of-age novel.
Isaac Cohen and his six close friends will soon earn their diplomas in Groston, their small New England town. They spend much of their time hanging out and playing games in Dave Rover’s bomb-shelter basement. Anticipating a smooth ride to graduation, they have ready access to Adam Siegal’s medical marijuana. Adam “scored a medical marijuana card after a massive hip injury.” But hurdles await, starting with Adam’s scuffle with a couple of star football players at Ashby Bryson High School. It’s clearly self-defense for Adam, a skilled aikido practitioner, but the fallout adversely affects his admission to Columbia. Isaac, meanwhile, has received neither an acceptance nor a rejection from Harvard. It only gets worse for everyone when calamitous weather forces the seven friends to attend school in another region. They clash with the other students as well as the rather pigheaded principal. But Isaac and company are resilient, and they make the most of their pre-graduation days by livening up a rave and, later, their prom. The friends also work hard on a “big end of the year prank” to send themselves and fellow students off in style. Binder’s vivid characters are certainly not what the title suggests. Isaac narrates, though each one in the group shines, from Charlie Johnson, who grows to despise his nickname, “Fat Charlie,” to Helen Beagle, who relies on a wheelchair but repeatedly proves she’s not helpless. There are occasional hardships, like a loved one’s death, but the story is generally lighthearted and good-natured, with a focus on the prom and a potential romance between Adam and Helen. Dialogue is particularly delightful, as it’s welcome banter between witty and loyal friends. Despite the 2018 setting, these teenagers regularly use outdated slang (“grooved” and “boogied”) and pop-culture references (Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn movies).
Immensely likable characters on an enthralling and entertaining journey. (acknowledgements, author bio, image credits)Pub Date: Nov. 8, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-940060-42-2
Page Count: 392
Publisher: Light Publications
Review Posted Online: June 5, 2020
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
This grittily provocative debut explores the horrors of self-harm and the healing power of artistic expression.
After surviving a suicide attempt, a fragile teen isn't sure she can endure without cutting herself.
Seventeen-year-old Charlie Davis, a white girl living on the margins, thinks she has little reason to live: her father drowned himself; her bereft and abusive mother kicked her out; her best friend, Ellis, is nearly brain dead after cutting too deeply; and she's gone through unspeakable experiences living on the street. After spending time in treatment with other young women like her—who cut, burn, poke, and otherwise hurt themselves—Charlie is released and takes a bus from the Twin Cities to Tucson to be closer to Mikey, a boy she "like-likes" but who had pined for Ellis instead. But things don't go as planned in the Arizona desert, because sweet Mikey just wants to be friends. Feeling rejected, Charlie, an artist, is drawn into a destructive new relationship with her sexy older co-worker, a "semifamous" local musician who's obviously a junkie alcoholic. Through intense, diarylike chapters chronicling Charlie's journey, the author captures the brutal and heartbreaking way "girls who write their pain on their bodies" scar and mar themselves, either succumbing or surviving. Like most issue books, this is not an easy read, but it's poignant and transcendent as Charlie breaks more and more before piecing herself back together.
This grittily provocative debut explores the horrors of self-harm and the healing power of artistic expression. (author’s note) (Fiction. 14 & up)Pub Date: Aug. 30, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-101-93471-5
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2016
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