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THE ONE WHO LOVES YOU THE MOST

A sweet book that’s sure to spread love and hopefulness.

An uplifting narrative about the freedom and clarity labels can offer.

Gabriela is a middle schooler on a journey of self-discovery. As a Honduran child adopted by a White mom, they have never felt completely comfortable with their body or their community. But things start to change when Abbie and Héctor enter their school. Abbie is an Indian and Peruvian American trans intersex girl, and Héctor is a Guatemalan American bisexual genderfluid person. Together, with understanding, patience, and lessons in Queer 101, they invite Gabriela to start exploring words that could fit them. Though Gabriela’s crush on Maya is a sweet addition to the story, it’s the friendship between Gabriela and their two new friends that makes the book shine. With their acceptance and love, Gabriela navigates middle school classes and turmoil, their mother’s depression, and a world that isn’t always welcoming to queer folks. With stellar adult characters, accessible prose, a diverse cast, and an uplifting narrative, the book tells a quick-moving story that can serve as a guide for adults to explore the LGBTQ+ lexicon with young people and help middle-grade readers discover, like Gabriela does, the power of understanding and identifying themselves. Gabriela and their friends offer queer kids a story with a happy ending.

A sweet book that’s sure to spread love and hopefulness. (resources) (Fiction. 9-14)

Pub Date: May 31, 2022

ISBN: 978-1-64614-090-9

Page Count: 256

Publisher: Levine Querido

Review Posted Online: March 1, 2022

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2022

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THE SCHOOL FOR GOOD AND EVIL

From the School for Good and Evil series , Vol. 1

Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic.

Chainani works an elaborate sea change akin to Gregory Maguire’s Wicked (1995), though he leaves the waters muddied.

Every four years, two children, one regarded as particularly nice and the other particularly nasty, are snatched from the village of Gavaldon by the shadowy School Master to attend the divided titular school. Those who survive to graduate become major or minor characters in fairy tales. When it happens to sweet, Disney princess–like Sophie and  her friend Agatha, plain of features, sour of disposition and low of self-esteem, they are both horrified to discover that they’ve been dropped not where they expect but at Evil and at Good respectively. Gradually—too gradually, as the author strings out hundreds of pages of Hogwarts-style pranks, classroom mishaps and competitions both academic and romantic—it becomes clear that the placement wasn’t a mistake at all. Growing into their true natures amid revelations and marked physical changes, the two spark escalating rivalry between the wings of the school. This leads up to a vicious climactic fight that sees Good and Evil repeatedly switching sides. At this point, readers are likely to feel suddenly left behind, as, thanks to summary deus ex machina resolutions, everything turns out swell(ish).

Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic. (Fantasy. 11-13)

Pub Date: May 14, 2013

ISBN: 978-0-06-210489-2

Page Count: 496

Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2013

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DRAMA

Brava!

From award winner Telgemeier (Smile, 2010), a pitch-perfect graphic novel portrayal of a middle school musical, adroitly capturing the drama both on and offstage.

Seventh-grader Callie Marin is over-the-moon to be on stage crew again this year for Eucalyptus Middle School’s production of Moon over Mississippi. Callie's just getting over popular baseball jock and eighth-grader Greg, who crushed her when he left Callie to return to his girlfriend, Bonnie, the stuck-up star of the play. Callie's healing heart is quickly captured by Justin and Jesse Mendocino, the two very cute twins who are working on the play with her. Equally determined to make the best sets possible with a shoestring budget and to get one of the Mendocino boys to notice her, the immensely likable Callie will find this to be an extremely drama-filled experience indeed. The palpably engaging and whip-smart characterization ensures that the charisma and camaraderie run high among those working on the production. When Greg snubs Callie in the halls and misses her reference to Guys and Dolls, one of her friends assuredly tells her, "Don't worry, Cal. We’re the cool kids….He's the dork." With the clear, stylish art, the strongly appealing characters and just the right pinch of drama, this book will undoubtedly make readers stand up and cheer.

Brava!  (Graphic fiction. 10-14)

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2012

ISBN: 978-0-545-32698-8

Page Count: 240

Publisher: Graphix/Scholastic

Review Posted Online: July 21, 2012

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2012

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