A cautionary tale from Britain about love on the Internet demonstrates the influence of online chat on teenage girls on both sides of the Atlantic. When Amy, 15, finds herself on the outs with her best friends since primary school, she retreats to a chat room to find companionship. There she meets the sympathetic and exciting Zed, whose teasing and sophisticated banter provides an exotic refuge from the dreariness of school and home. When Amy meets him in person despite the concerns of both her mother and her new friend and fellow loser Beaky, she finds that he is not as he had represented himself, and moreover has a disturbing lapse of consciousness during a day together on the beach. Could this be related to the mysterious reversal of her shirt and subsequent flashbacks of an unclothed Zed? The narration takes the form of a taped report given by Amy to the police after the event, and the occasional chapter heading indicating the recording time and inclusion of chat transcripts jar with the colloquial and conversational tone of the narrative itself, calling attention to the artifice rather than aiding any real suspension of disbelief. These jolts are few, however, and do not fatally impede the flow of the narrative. There are no surprises in this tale; teens who have had the rules of Internet safety drummed into them will be a step ahead of naïve little Amy all the way. But the near-universal obsession with chat will nevertheless make this an easy sell, and readers will enjoy this vicarious brush with danger. (Fiction. 11-15)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2002
ISBN: 1-58234-793-X
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2002
An intimate novel that beautifully confronts grief and loss.
It’s 1983, and 13-year-old Indian American Reha feels caught between two worlds.
Monday through Friday, she goes to a school where she stands out for not being White but where she has a weekday best friend, Rachel, and does English projects with potential crush Pete. On the weekends, she’s with her other best friend, Sunita (Sunny for short), at gatherings hosted by her Indian community. Reha feels frustrated that her parents refuse to acknowledge her Americanness and insist on raising her with Indian values and habits. Then, on the night of the middle school dance, her mother is admitted to the hospital, and Reha’s world is split in two again: this time, between hospital and home. Suddenly she must learn not just how to be both Indian and American, but also how to live with her mother’s leukemia diagnosis. The sections dealing with Reha’s immigrant identity rely on oft-told themes about the overprotectiveness of immigrant parents and lack the nuance found in later pages. Reha’s story of her evolving relationships with her parents, however, feels layered and real, and the scenes in which Reha must grapple with the possible loss of a parent are beautifully and sensitively rendered. The sophistication of the text makes it a valuable and thought-provoking read even for those older than the protagonist.
An intimate novel that beautifully confronts grief and loss. (Verse novel. 11-15)Pub Date: Feb. 2, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-06-304742-6
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Nov. 26, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
When Clara Luna, 14, visits rural Mexico for the summer to visit the paternal grandparents she has never met, she cannot know her trip will involve an emotional and spiritual journey into her family’s past and a deep connection to a rich heritage of which she was barely aware. Long estranged from his parents, Clara’s father had entered the U.S. illegally years before, subsequently becoming a successful business owner who never spoke about what he left behind. Clara’s journey into her grandmother’s history (told in alternating chapters with Clara’s own first-person narrative) and her discovery that she, like her grandmother and ancestors, has a gift for healing, awakens her to the simple, mystical joys of a rural lifestyle she comes to love and wholly embrace. Painfully aware of not fitting into suburban teen life in her native Maryland, Clara awakens to feeling alive in Mexico and realizes a sweet first love with Pedro, a charming goat herder. Beautifully written, this is filled with evocative language that is rich in imagery and nuance and speaks to the connections that bind us all. Add a thrilling adventure and all the makings of an entrancing read are here. (glossaries) (Fiction. 12-14)
Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2006
ISBN: 0-385-73343-7
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2006
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