In this odd, cross-genre pairing, a boy tries to solve the mystery of his mother’s disappearance, not knowing that she has turned into a child herself and is now his classmate. Told from two points of view, this part mystery, part supernatural hybrid goes back and forth between Patrick, a 12-year-old boy whose mother has vanished, and Bernadette, his mother. Though discombobulated by the experience of being 12 again, Bernadette enjoys her second go-round in middle school and her reunion with her own mother, a superstitious, unassimilated Irish immigrant who is dead in the present. Seemingly less out of affection and more because he’s stuck doing chores and caring for his younger brothers, Patrick repeatedly e-mails his mother and tries to piece together clues to her whereabouts. Meanwhile, Bernadette learns from her research into Irish folklore that her problems are the work of magical and malicious fairies. To rid herself of the fairies and return to her adult self, Bernadette takes her mother’s advice and asks Patrick for help, which brings the duel story lines together, focuses the action and causes grandmother and mother and mother and son to value each other in more profound ways. After a crackerjack opening, the story stumbles a bit—Bernadette’s middle-school experiences seem off point and her quest to return to her adult life initially lacks urgency—before regaining its footing in the unexpected territory of Irish fairy lore. Still: original, unusual, and imaginative. (Fiction. 10-14)
Pub Date: July 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-525-46899-4
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2002
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
A captivating book situated in present-day discourse around the refugee crisis, featuring two boys who stand by their high...
Two parallel stories, one of a Syrian boy from Aleppo fleeing war, and another of a white American boy, son of a NATO contractor, dealing with the challenges of growing up, intersect at a house in Brussels.
Ahmed lost his father while crossing the Mediterranean. Alone and broke in Europe, he takes things into his own hands to get to safety but ends up having to hide in the basement of a residential house. After months of hiding, he is discovered by Max, a boy of similar age and parallel high integrity and courage, who is experiencing his own set of troubles learning a new language, moving to a new country, and being teased at school. In an unexpected turn of events, the two boys and their new friends Farah, a Muslim Belgian girl, and Oscar, a white Belgian boy, successfully scheme for Ahmed to go to school while he remains in hiding the rest of the time. What is at stake for Ahmed is immense, and so is the risk to everyone involved. Marsh invites art and history to motivate her protagonists, drawing parallels to gentiles who protected Jews fleeing Nazi terror and citing present-day political news. This well-crafted and suspenseful novel touches on the topics of refugees and immigrant integration, terrorism, Islam, Islamophobia, and the Syrian war with sensitivity and grace.
A captivating book situated in present-day discourse around the refugee crisis, featuring two boys who stand by their high values in the face of grave risk and succeed in drawing goodwill from others. (Historical fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Aug. 7, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-250-30757-6
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: June 10, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2018
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