A well-intentioned but mediocre book about listening to your instincts.
Instead of starting her senior year, 16-year-old Caroline is planning to run away with her older boyfriend, Jake, at the end of the summer.
To help finance their move, Caroline gets a job in the gift shop of the local aquarium, where she meets Georgia, one of the summer camp counselors. Georgia and Caroline are heading in opposite directions—Caroline may be leaving high school before graduation, and Georgia (reluctantly) takes weekly practice SAT tests and has annotated her college guidebook—but they quickly become friends. As their friendship grows and as Caroline’s plans with Jake start to solidify, Caroline begins to question what she actually wants—to stay or to go. Van Name’s debut is a fun read written in a comfortable, conversational style, but it leaves a lot to be desired in terms of depth. Set against a default-white suburban neighborhood, the only two options presented for Caroline are leaving with Jake or following her parents’ plans of completing school and going to college, and those choices are treated without nuance. Caroline’s relationship with Jake is mostly well-presented, but his intentions are unclear, as are her actual feelings about how they spend their time together (she seems to have sex with him more out of expectation than desire). Her relationship with Georgia, by contrast, is sweet and well-developed.
A well-intentioned but mediocre book about listening to your instincts. (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: May 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4926-7703-1
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
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
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
BOOK REVIEW
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