A feel-good story with a tidy, happy ending.
In Halifax Harbour a 16-year-old girl with snow-cone–blue hair and a lip ring performs ballet to punk rock while she paints for the passing public.
After several noise complaints, performance artist Sydney Hart must pack up and say goodbye to her tips, her only source of income. Then an invitation to a speed-painting competition hosted by the prestigious art academy she attended before her mom lost her job offers Sydney a glimmer of hope. The Brush Off’s grand prize is full tuition and room and board, which would allow Sydney to return to the school. She’s willing to do whatever it takes to win, and that includes suppressing who she’s become—a creative performance artist who doesn’t look like the preppy academy student she was two years ago. Should she risk competing as the artist she is instead of the one the academy wants her to be? Sydney does her best work when she dances to loud music and makes a mess while she paints, a modus operandi that doesn’t jibe with the academy’s uptight, rigid constraints. In this brief novel, Sydney is frustratingly wishy-washy, going back and forth—during the course of the competition’s two days—between being who she is now and who she was when she fit in at the school. Her dark-skinned, pink-haired best friend, Lish, and competition rival Jorge comprise the white teen’s support system.
A feel-good story with a tidy, happy ending. (Fiction. 12-16)Pub Date: Nov. 14, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4598-1358-8
Page Count: 120
Publisher: Orca
Review Posted Online: Aug. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The continuing, shambolic adventures of Rhode Island’s rockingest trumpet-and-ukelele–based quintet finds plenty of sweet to balance out the sour (Lemonade Mouth, 2007).
It’s summer, and although each of the band’s five members—Olivia, Charlie, Mo, Wen and Stella—have jobs, they compose and record new songs in their friend Lyle’s garage studio. Their performance at Cranston’s Chowder Fest attracts the attention of legendary agent Earl Decker, who tries to mold the group into a chart-topping indie phenom, paying for an expensive, moody photo shoot and studio time. He also secures them an audition on American Pop Sensation, where the gutsy teens stand up to the mean-spirited judges. When video of their judge-scolding incident—sure to inspire the many compulsive watchers of Simon Cowell to punch the air in solidarity—goes viral and combines with their philosophical objections to being Photoshopped in a sponsor’s ad, Lemonade Mouth fires Earl in favor of remaining true to their convictions. The band’s independent, quirky journey is conveyed through the diary entries, letters, transcribed interviews and screenplay excerpts that form the narrative—and that promise at least one more chapter in the band’s imaginary history.
Warmhearted and innocently wild, this stand-alone sequel will find appreciative fans among teen music obsessives and social activists. (Fiction. 12-15)
Pub Date: Nov. 13, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-385-73712-8
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: Sept. 11, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2012
Despite its potential, though, it’s likely that the book will have limited appeal.
Goelman’s debut novel, part summer-camp tale, part ghost story and part murder mystery, is served with a sprinkling of math and a heavy dose of often-confusing Jewish orthodoxy.
Thirteen-year-old math and magic geek Dahlia reluctantly agrees to three weeks at a Jewish summer camp. There, the ghosts of two little girls visit her, and she begins to dream of David Schank, a young yeshiva student in New York in the 1930s. Soon, she realizes his spirit has possessed her; he is an ibur who needs her help to complete a task he began when alive. The novel alternates between David’s story, in which he first discovers and then fails to hide from the Illuminated Ones the 72nd name of God, and Dahlia’s, as she attempts to figure out what the ghosts and the spirit want and why the creepy caretaker won’t let any children into the camp’s overgrown hedge maze. A substantial cast of characters, multiple plot twists in both narrative storylines, some subplots that go nowhere, a golem, gematria or Jewish numerology, the cabala and more make this novel a challenging read. It’s certainly a refreshing change from the usual focus in middle-grade Jewish fiction on the Holocaust, immigrants and bar/bat mitzvahs, and the inclusion of a girl protagonist who loves math is also welcome.
Despite its potential, though, it’s likely that the book will have limited appeal. (Paranormal mystery. 12-15)Pub Date: May 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-545-47430-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Levine/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: March 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
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