Implausible but dreamy.
River’s bad day leads to a life-changing summer and brighter future.
Near the end of seventh grade, River has a terrible day. Her best friend, Emi, dumps her because of their socio-economic differences: Sunny, River’s single mom, is a bar waitress who often works nights, and River can’t afford to pay her way when she’s with Emi’s wealthy family. Then Principal Martinez, worried about River’s frequent absences, makes a home visit—but unreliable Sunny is a no-show. Fed up, River runs away. Although Sunny never discusses her family, she’s kept a letter sent from Great Bear Island, so River heads there. By unbelievable chance, when she arrives, she’s mistaken for Liv, a high school student who had accepted, then rejected, a job at the Great Bear Lodge run by Sunny’s sister, Jemma. To give herself time to assess her newfound family, River assumes Liv’s identity, saying she changed her mind about working there. No sooner has River come to love her relatives, their Norwegian and Tsimshian heritage, and the island, than Sunny shows up to drag her home. All seems lost until a lottery ticket given to River by a stranger wins! Descriptions of island life are captivating, and likable River narrates with spirit and honesty. Wishful thinkers will buy into her story despite the many times they must suspend disbelief, including the unconvincing change in Sunny after the windfall. Names cue some diversity in the cast.
Implausible but dreamy. (Fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Sept. 13, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-593-52457-2
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Razorbill/Penguin
Review Posted Online: July 12, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2022
Riveting, inspiring, and sometimes hilarious.
If you made a recording to be heard by the aliens who found the iPod, what would you record?
For 11-year-old Alex Petroski, it's easy. He records everything. He records the story of how he travels to New Mexico to a rocket festival with his dog, Carl Sagan, and his rocket. He records finding out that a man with the same name and birthday as his dead father has an address in Las Vegas. He records eating at Johnny Rockets for the first time with his new friends, who are giving him a ride to find his dead father (who might not be dead!), and losing Carl Sagan in the wilds of Las Vegas, and discovering he has a half sister. He even records his own awful accident. Cheng delivers a sweet, soulful debut novel with a brilliant, refreshing structure. His characters manage to come alive through the “transcript” of Alex’s iPod recording, an odd medium that sounds like it would be confusing but really works. Taking inspiration from the Voyager Golden Record released to space in 1977, Alex, who explains he has “light brown skin,” records all the important moments of a journey that takes him from a family of two to a family of plenty.
Riveting, inspiring, and sometimes hilarious. (Fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Feb. 28, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-399-18637-0
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 18, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
