A quietly affecting portrait of an aspiring activist logophile as a black Philly girl.
The NAACP Image Award–nominated author of Riding Chance (2016) cultivates another tale of blossoming blackness in the soil of her hometown of Philadelphia.
Geneva “Neva” Beane, 12, uses her Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary and its definitions to help her describe and navigate the world as much as the author uses the vocabulary words to frame each chapter. Neva’s world is filled with the increasingly agitating presence of her 16-year-old lifeguard brother, Clayton, and her lovingly well-intentioned, sometimes brusque grandparents Nana and Granddad, who are rearing the siblings while their parents pursue their musical dreams in Europe. It shifts when she reassesses her developing body, her familial relationships, and her friendship with her bestie, Jamila, through the upending presence of Michelle Overton, the 13-year-old across-the-street neighbor whom Neva describes as “hot and happening” and whom Granddad and Nana suspect of being “trouble” by involving Clayton in social activism, which they eschew for quieter forms of community service. Soon, Michelle’s friendship with Clayton leads to her befriending Neva, creating escalating tension between Neva and Jamila as well as Neva and her guardians. Will Neva’s belief in words help her believe in herself, her body, her family and friends, and her place in her politically expanding world? Through Neva’s intelligent narration, Kendall explores contemporary debates to young readers, making them plain and personal.
A quietly affecting portrait of an aspiring activist logophile as a black Philly girl. (Fiction. 10-12)Pub Date: Sept. 15, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-338-32489-1
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: June 2, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
Cinematic, over-the-top decadence, a tense race against time, and lessons on what’s truly valuable.
A reward of $5,000,000 almost ruins everything for two seventh graders.
On a class trip to New York City, Felix and Benji find a wallet belonging to social media billionaire Laura Friendly. Benji, a well-off, chaotic kid with learning disabilities, swipes $20 from the wallet before they send it back to its owner. Felix, a poor, shy, rule-follower, reluctantly consents. So when Laura Friendly herself arrives to give them a reward for the returned wallet, she’s annoyed. To teach her larcenous helpers a lesson, Laura offers them a deal: a $20,000 college scholarship or slightly over $5 million cash—but with strings attached. The boys must spend all the money in 30 days, with legal stipulations preventing them from giving anything away, investing, or telling anyone about it. The glorious windfall quickly grows to become a chore and then a torment as the boys appear increasingly selfish and irresponsible to the adults in their lives. They rent luxury cars, hire a (wonderful) philosophy undergrad as a chauffeur, take their families to Disney World, and spend thousands on in-app game purchases. Yet, surrounded by hedonistically described piles of loot and filthy lucre, the boys long for simpler fundamentals. The absorbing spending spree reads like a fun family film, gleefully stuffed with the very opulence it warns against. Major characters are White.
Cinematic, over-the-top decadence, a tense race against time, and lessons on what’s truly valuable. (mathematical explanations) (Fiction. 10-12)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-17525-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: June 29, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2020
On equal footing with a garden-variety potato.
The new kid in school endures becoming the school mascot.
Ben Hardy has never cared for potatoes, and this distaste has become a barrier to adjusting to life in his new Idaho town. His school’s mascot is the Spud, and after a series of misfortunes, Ben is enlisted to don the potato costume and cheer on his school’s team. Ben balances his duties as a life-sized potato against his desperate desire to hide the fact that he’s the dork in the suit. After all, his cute new crush, Jayla, wouldn’t be too impressed to discover Ben’s secret. The ensuing novel is a fairly boilerplate middle–grade narrative: snarky tween protagonist, the crush that isn’t quite what she seems, and a pair of best friends that have more going on than our hero initially believes. The author keeps the novel moving quickly, pushing forward with witty asides and narrative momentum so fast that readers won’t really mind that the plot’s spine is one they’ve encountered many times before. Once finished, readers will feel little resonance and move on to the next book in their to-read piles, but in the moment the novel is pleasant enough. Ben, Jayla, and Ben’s friend Hunter are white while Ellie, Ben’s other good pal, is Latina.
On equal footing with a garden-variety potato. (Fiction. 10-12)Pub Date: March 24, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-11866-5
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Nov. 23, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
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