A well-characterized novel offering insight into Syrian perspectives.
Two cousins find common ground in their love of art and graffiti in this dual-perspective novel set on the verge of the Syrian revolution.
Samira is a seventh grade Syrian American Muslim girl living in small-town Massachusetts. She’s artistic and is particularly drawn to fonts and lettering. After her cousin Kareem is nearly caught spraying graffiti to protest the Syrian government, he’s sent from Damascus to stay with her family. Initially, the cousins clash. As the only student at her school who’s Arab or Muslim, Samira tries to blend in, going by Sam and staying quiet when her friends make ignorant, xenophobic comments. Kareem can’t understand Samira’s need to fit in. He befriends Ellie, Samira’s Jewish best friend, and the two decide to secretly graffiti the town using spray chalk as a way of drawing people’s attention to events in Syria. But as the graffiti divides their small community, Kareem and Samira find common ground and mutual empathy. The cousins grow, both individually and in tandem with their evolving relationship. Samira ultimately realizes who her true friends are, while Kareem finds a way to thrive where he is, despite his intense desire to return home. One event, in particular, realistically juxtaposes Kareem’s safe new life with the growing dangers for his family in Syria. As readers follow the characters’ evolution, they’ll clearly absorb the message that it is worth it to stand up for what you believe in.
A well-characterized novel offering insight into Syrian perspectives. (author’s note, glossary, poem) (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Nov. 7, 2023
ISBN: 9781454950714
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Union Square Kids
Review Posted Online: Sept. 9, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs.
The Heffley family’s house undergoes a disastrous attempt at home improvement.
When Great Aunt Reba dies, she leaves some money to the family. Greg’s mom calls a family meeting to determine what to do with their share, proposing home improvements and then overruling the family’s cartoonish wish lists and instead pushing for an addition to the kitchen. Before bringing in the construction crew, the Heffleys attempt to do minor maintenance and repairs themselves—during which Greg fails at the work in various slapstick scenes. Once the professionals are brought in, the problems keep getting worse: angry neighbors, terrifying problems in walls, and—most serious—civil permitting issues that put the kibosh on what work’s been done. Left with only enough inheritance to patch and repair the exterior of the house—and with the school’s dismal standardized test scores as a final straw—Greg’s mom steers the family toward moving, opening up house-hunting and house-selling storylines (and devastating loyal Rowley, who doesn’t want to lose his best friend). While Greg’s positive about the move, he’s not completely uncaring about Rowley’s action. (And of course, Greg himself is not as unaffected as he wishes.) The gags include effectively placed callbacks to seemingly incidental events (the “stress lizard” brought in on testing day is particularly funny) and a lampoon of after-school-special–style problem books. Just when it seems that the Heffleys really will move, a new sequence of chaotic trouble and property destruction heralds a return to the status quo. Whew.
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs. (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 8-12)Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3903-3
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Nov. 18, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
Eminently readable and appealing; will tug at dog-loving readers’ heartstrings.
A loquacious, lovable dog narrates the challenges of shelter life as he longs for a home.
Friendly three-legged Chance is the perfect guide to Dogtown, a shelter that houses both warmblooded and robot dogs. In fact, she’s “Management’s lucky charm,” roaming freely without being confined to a cage and leaving kibble for her mouse friend. Life is pretty good. But she still yearns for reunification with her family and, like many of the living pups, harbors suspicion of her robot counterparts, who are convenient and more easily adoptable but lacking in personality. When Metal Head, an oddly engineered e-dog, bonds with a child during a shelter reading program, Chance’s assumptions about heartless robot dogs are upended. As Chance connects with Metal Head, the two make a brief escape into the wider world, and Chance learns a familiar lesson: Everyone longs for a place to belong. Memories of Chance’s happy home loom large in her mind: Easy days with the Bessers, a sweet Black family, were disrupted by a neglectful dogsitter, the accident that cost Chance her leg, and Chance’s flight in search of safety. Chance’s chatty narrative style includes flashbacks, vignettes about fellow shelter pets, and thoughtful observations, for example, about the “boohoos,” or sad new arrivals. The story offers many moments of laughter and reflection, all greatly enhanced by West’s utterly charming grayscale illustrations of irresistible pooches.
Eminently readable and appealing; will tug at dog-loving readers’ heartstrings. (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 19, 2023
ISBN: 9781250811608
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2023
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