Genuine and grounded; full of warmth and pragmatic realism despite difficult and uncertain circumstances.
A 13-year-old learns to accept help when everything in her life starts shifting.
Right after she’s worked up the courage to share her romantic feelings for PJ, the girl who’s been her best friend for years, everything in Alexandra Eager’s life starts to go off-kilter. Her grandmother, who’s cared for her since her mother’s death from complications of childbirth, is becoming more confused and forgetful. Alex’s local library, where she’s on the Youth Council, faces possible funding cuts, and beloved librarian Alonso is doing his best to be positive despite the dreary outlook. Matters go from bad to worse when PJ announces that she and her moms are moving. Alex’s desperate fear of losing PJ pushes her to make a dangerous decision, and things quickly fall apart. But the reveal of a family secret unexpectedly leads to a new way forward and expands Alex’s support system. Although few tidy resolutions appear at the end, the story contains plenty of comfort and compassion. Alex and PJ’s budding romance is gentle and sweet, with realistic complications and heartfelt emotions that are well suited to their ages. Alex’s grandmother’s worsening dementia raises big questions of familial responsibility and elder care that will be familiar to many readers, while the parallel storyline of the library’s funding battle leads to a timely and authentic (if frustrating) conclusion. The main characters read white.
Genuine and grounded; full of warmth and pragmatic realism despite difficult and uncertain circumstances. (Fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Feb. 11, 2025
ISBN: 9780593699515
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: Nov. 9, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
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BOOK REVIEW
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