A Montana teen flirts with involvement with a white-supremacist movement, and then fights to keep his brother out of it. Ben’s rage at his family’s poverty and the rich kids who lord it over him finds an easy outlet at the meetings his father takes him to, where the charismatic Lonn preaches against the Jewish bankers and developers he claims are changing the rural Montana way of life. A couple of nighttime forays into violence give Ben a feeling of power and worth unlike anything he’s ever known. Up to this point, the narrative is quite successful, but then Ben experiences a sudden change of heart brought about in part by his burgeoning romance with the free-spirited Eden and a reluctant friendship with a rich kid with whom he is doing community service. Virtually overnight, Ben realizes the danger involvement in the Guardians of the Identity represents, and he is revulsed by his prior actions and by his weak younger brother’s growing involvement. There is a difficulty inherent when writing about subjects such as these in formulating sympathetic characters who nevertheless think and do abhorrent things. Martin (The Eagle’s Shadow, 1997, etc.) nearly achieves this, but instead takes the easy path, making her protagonist an observer who rejects evil and chooses the moral high ground (building subsidized housing for the poor, no less). What could have been a truly provocative offering degenerates into another teen problem novel, albeit with a problem more inflammatory than most. Some of the feelings expressed by Ben ring with emotional honesty—“Making that car burn almost made up for every dirty look every name hissed at me from under some creep’s breath”—but others seem forced in their attempt to make Ben over into a good boy: “I went home from Eden’s realizing that she was the kind of friend and girlfriend I really wanted. But I needed to be the kind of person in truth that she thought I was.” Well-meaning but ultimately obvious. (Fiction. YA)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2002
ISBN: 1-58234-788-3
Page Count: 200
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2002
An ode to the children of migrants who have been taken away.
A Mexican American boy takes on heavy responsibilities when his family is torn apart.
Mateo’s life is turned upside down the day U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents show up unsuccessfully seeking his Pa at his New York City bodega. The Garcias live in fear until the day both parents are picked up; his Pa is taken to jail and his Ma to a detention center. The adults around Mateo offer support to him and his 7-year-old sister, Sophie, however, he knows he is now responsible for caring for her and the bodega as well as trying to survive junior year—that is, if he wants to fulfill his dream to enter the drama program at the Tisch School of the Arts and become an actor. Mateo’s relationships with his friends Kimmie and Adam (a potential love interest) also suffer repercussions as he keeps his situation a secret. Kimmie is half Korean (her other half is unspecified) and Adam is Italian American; Mateo feels disconnected from them, less American, and with worries they can’t understand. He talks himself out of choosing a safer course of action, a decision that deepens the story. Mateo’s self-awareness and inner monologue at times make him seem older than 16, and, with significant turmoil in the main plot, some side elements feel underdeveloped. Aleman’s narrative joins the ranks of heart-wrenching stories of migrant families who have been separated.
An ode to the children of migrants who have been taken away. (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: May 4, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-7595-5605-8
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 22, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
There’s not much plot here, but readers will relish the opportunity to climb inside Autumn’s head.
The finely drawn characters capture readers’ attention in this debut.
Autumn and Phineas, nicknamed Finny, were born a week apart; their mothers are still best friends. Growing up, Autumn and Finny were like peas in a pod despite their differences: Autumn is “quirky and odd,” while Finny is “sweet and shy and everyone like[s] him.” But in eighth grade, Autumn and Finny stop being friends due to an unexpected kiss. They drift apart and find new friends, but their friendship keeps asserting itself at parties, shared holiday gatherings and random encounters. In the summer after graduation, Autumn and Finny reconnect and are finally ready to be more than friends. But on August 8, everything changes, and Autumn has to rely on all her strength to move on. Autumn’s coming-of-age is sensitively chronicled, with a wide range of experiences and events shaping her character. Even secondary characters are well-rounded, with their own histories and motivations.
There’s not much plot here, but readers will relish the opportunity to climb inside Autumn’s head. (Fiction. 14 & up)Pub Date: April 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4022-7782-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
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