A brave young heroine amid a fascinating historical setting, but short on attention to detail.
Debut author Romero’s historical young-adult novel features a homeless 13-year-old girl who finds shelter among New York City’s newsboys.
Elsie Lutz’s shares a room with her German immigrant father in a crowded turn-of-the-20th-century New York City tenement. But when her father is arrested for a crime he didn’t commit, she finds herself without a home. Luckily, she meets street-smart newsboy Grin, who initiates her into his colorful crew and teaches her all about selling “papes.” Soon, the “newsie” gangs—Elsie with them—forgo their deadly rivalries to unite in a strike against the major papers. Elsie even manages to speak up at an important strike meeting. As rumors swirl about strike leaders betraying the movement, the two find themselves in danger—just as Elsie meets a young woman who might be able to help her father’s case. When the strike ends, success isn’t pure, although Elsie discovers a new inner strength and a good, loud voice. As Grin says, “Sometimes winnin’ doesn’t look the way we want it to.” Romero has chosen an exciting historical episode for her first novel. The premise—that uneducated, often homeless young newspaper sellers could put enough pressure on the likes of Hearst and Pulitzer to win a favorable settlement—is helped by Romero’s use of historical characters, like the one-eyed Kid Blink. Elsie makes a sympathetic heroine, both thoughtful and hard-headed. Yet the book includes a few anachronisms and suffers from an overly compressed timeframe: The strike begins soon after Elsie joins the gang, so the build-up about learning the ropes goes to waste; she gets almost no chance to actually sell papers. It’s hard to see why she’s popular enough to be invited to speak at an important meeting. Also, Elsie’s epiphanies seem unearned, especially when she explains that the voice she finds isn’t even hers: “A voice that was never my own, but was that of a newsboy with a wide sly grin.” Furthermore, the writing can be clumsy, particularly the newsboy dialect.
A brave young heroine amid a fascinating historical setting, but short on attention to detail.Pub Date: March 9, 2012
ISBN: 978-0985191603
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Kid Books Market
Review Posted Online: Aug. 13, 2012
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
In more ways than one, a tale about young creatures testing their wings; a moving, entertaining winner.
A fifth-grade New Orleans girl discovers a mysterious chrysalis containing an unexpected creature in this middle-grade novel.
Jacquelyn Marie Johnson, called Jackie, is a 10-year-old African-American girl, the second oldest and the only girl of six siblings. She’s responsible, smart, and enjoys being in charge; she likes “paper dolls and long division and imagining things she had never seen.” Normally, Jackie has no trouble obeying her strict but loving parents. But when her potted snapdragon acquires a peculiar egg or maybe a chrysalis (she dubs it a chrysalegg), Jackie’s strong desire to protect it runs up against her mother’s rule against plants in the house. Jackie doesn’t exactly mean to lie, but she tells her mother she needs to keep the snapdragon in her room for a science project and gets permission. Jackie draws the chrysalegg daily, waiting for something to happen as it gets larger. When the amazing creature inside breaks free, Jackie is more determined than ever to protect it, but this leads her further into secrets and lies. The results when her parents find out are painful, and resolving the problem will take courage, honesty, and trust. Dumas (Jaden Toussaint, the Greatest: Episode 5, 2017, etc.) presents a very likable character in Jackie. At 10, she’s young enough to enjoy playing with paper dolls but has a maturity that even older kids can lack. She’s resourceful, as when she wants to measure a red spot on the chrysalegg; lacking calipers, she fashions one from her hairpin. Jackie’s inward struggle about what to obey—her dearest wishes or the parents she loves—is one many readers will understand. The book complicates this question by making Jackie’s parents, especially her mother, strict (as one might expect to keep order in a large family) but undeniably loving and protective as well—it’s not just a question of outwitting clueless adults. Jackie’s feelings about the creature (tender and responsible but also more than a little obsessive) are similarly shaded rather than black-and-white. The ending suggests that an intriguing sequel is to come.
In more ways than one, a tale about young creatures testing their wings; a moving, entertaining winner.Pub Date: Nov. 11, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-943169-32-0
Page Count: 212
Publisher: Plum Street Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 22, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A YA novel that treats its subject and its readers with respect while delivering an engaging story.
In the ninth book in the Bluford young-adult series, a young Latino man walks away from violence—but at great personal cost.
In a large Southern California city, 16-year-old Martin Luna hangs out on the fringes of gang life. He’s disaffected, fatherless and increasingly drawn into the orbit of the older, rougher Frankie. When a stray bullet kills Martin’s adored 8-year-old brother, Huero, Martin seems to be heading into a life of crime. But Martin’s mother, determined not to lose another son, moves him to another neighborhood—the fictional town of Bluford, where he attends the racially diverse Bluford High. At his new school, the still-grieving Martin quickly makes enemies and gets into trouble. But he also makes friends with a kind English teacher and catches the eye of Vicky, a smart, pretty and outgoing Bluford student. Martin’s first-person narration supplies much of the book’s power. His dialogue is plain, but realistic and believable, and the authors wisely avoid the temptation to lard his speech with dated and potentially embarrassing slang. The author draws a vivid and affecting picture of Martin’s pain and confusion, bringing a tight-lipped teenager to life. In fact, Martin’s character is so well drawn that when he realizes the truth about his friend Frankie, readers won’t feel as if they are watching an after-school special, but as though they are observing the natural progression of Martin’s personal growth. This short novel appears to be aimed at urban teens who don’t often see their neighborhoods portrayed in young-adult fiction, but its sophisticated characters and affecting story will likely have much wider appeal.
A YA novel that treats its subject and its readers with respect while delivering an engaging story.Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2004
ISBN: 978-1591940173
Page Count: 152
Publisher: Townsend Press
Review Posted Online: Jan. 26, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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