A confident chronicle from a young voice at the margins.
The true story of a 15-year-old migrant girl’s formidable trek across the U.S.–Mexico border.
The memories contained here belong to Gricelda, who crossed la frontera alongside her mother and younger brother to reunite with her father and older brother. She related her story in Spanish to bilingual author Gerster, who shares it here, with the English and Spanish text on facing pages. Following a poignant prayer circle with extended family, Gricelda and her family headed to a squalid Tijuana hotel, where an unexpected stranger came to their hotel door. The trio soon found themselves in a house filled with other families. Unable to escape from the men who bartered over their upcoming journey or the ones drinking and doing drugs in the living room, they waited uncertainly until the day to cross the desert arrived. The trek across the desert proved hard even though a man called El Güero provided them with protection and encouragement. A short epilogue details how Gricelda and her mother and younger brother faced unanticipated challenges adjusting to the U.S. and their new lives, at first sharing a crowded apartment with unwelcoming cousins. Gerster, who has personal experience of family deportation, makes a noble, precise effort to represent Gricelda’s voice. Full of subdued blues, yellows, and oranges, Dunnett’s artwork captures the hazy scrapbook feel of memories, honoring Gricelda’s story and its nightmarish cadence.
A confident chronicle from a young voice at the margins. (author's note) (Nonfiction. 12-18)Pub Date: April 13, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-55152-836-6
Page Count: 72
Publisher: Arsenal Pulp Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 4, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2021
Small but mighty necessary reading.
A miniature manifesto for radical queer acceptance that weaves together the personal and political.
Eli, a cis gay white Jewish man, uses his own identities and experiences to frame and acknowledge his perspective. In the prologue, Eli compares the global Jewish community to the global queer community, noting, “We don’t always get it right, but the importance of showing up for other Jews has been carved into the DNA of what it means to be Jewish. It is my dream that queer people develop the same ideology—what I like to call a Global Queer Conscience.” He details his own isolating experiences as a queer adolescent in an Orthodox Jewish community and reflects on how he and so many others would have benefitted from a robust and supportive queer community. The rest of the book outlines 10 principles based on the belief that an expectation of mutual care and concern across various other dimensions of identity can be integrated into queer community values. Eli’s prose is clear, straightforward, and powerful. While he makes some choices that may be divisive—for example, using the initialism LGBTQIAA+ which includes “ally”—he always makes clear those are his personal choices and that the language is ever evolving.
Small but mighty necessary reading. (resources) (Nonfiction. 14-18)Pub Date: June 2, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-09368-9
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2020
Brief yet inspirational, this story will galvanize youth to use their voices for change.
Testa’s connection to and respect for nature compelled her to begin championing animal causes at the age of 10, and this desire to have an impact later propelled her to dedicate her life to fighting plastic pollution. Starting with the history of plastic and how it’s produced, Testa acknowledges the benefits of plastics for humanity but also the many ways it harms our planet. Instead of relying on recycling—which is both insufficient and ineffective—she urges readers to follow two additional R’s: “refuse” and “raise awareness.” Readers are encouraged to do their part, starting with small things like refusing to use plastic straws and water bottles and eventually working up to using their voices to influence business and policy change. In the process, she highlights other youth advocates working toward the same cause. Short chapters include personal examples, such as observations of plastic pollution in Mauritius, her maternal grandparents’ birthplace. Testa makes her case not only against plastic pollution, but also for the work she’s done, resulting in something of a college-admissions–essay tone. Nevertheless, the first-person accounts paired with science will have an impact on readers. Unfortunately, no sources are cited and the lack of backmatter is a missed opportunity.
Brief yet inspirational, this story will galvanize youth to use their voices for change. (Nonfiction. 12-18)Pub Date: Oct. 13, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-22333-8
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2020
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