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THE GREAT HIBERNATION

Mildly amusing, with a silly, stomach-turning premise conveying sober concepts.

When a bizarre ritual goes haywire, Kids Say the Darndest Things meets Lord of the Flies.

In St. Polonius-on-the-Fjord, citizens over 12 partake in the annual commemoration of the town’s founding by eating of the Sacred Bear Liver. They engage in this loathsome rite to avoid falling into a monthslong slumber, a fate suffered by the original settlers. This year, white Jean Huddy participates for the first time but secretly barfs up her portion. Then, against all odds, everyone over 12 who did sample the liver falls fast asleep, leaving only the town’s children—including Jean and Isara, a 13-year-old boy of Thai heritage—awake and obligated to assume their parents’ jobs. The author mines a few laughs from kids’ performing adult work, but some aspects are sinister: the mayor’s xenophobic son revels in his tyranny; the town bullies are strict law enforcers. An unconvincing mystery subplot involves a startling revelation about what happened to the grown-ups, the discovery of a secret formula to reverse the sleep, and Jean’s and her friends’ frantic scramble to interpret and use it to awaken the sleepers. Themes abound in this political satire, with its “Sleeping Beauty” and Shakespearean overtones, including clueless adults, governmental corruption, shady corporate dealings, usurpation of power, anti-immigration sentiments, unethical science, and animal cruelty. Savvy readers may glean some hints about the current charged political scene. These disparate storylines coalesce uneasily.

Mildly amusing, with a silly, stomach-turning premise conveying sober concepts. (Fiction. 10-12)

Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2017

ISBN: 978-1-5247-1785-8

Page Count: 272

Publisher: Wendy Lamb/Random

Review Posted Online: May 23, 2017

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2017

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MILLIONAIRES FOR THE MONTH

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

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ALMOST SUPER

A solid debut: fluent, funny and eminently sequel-worthy.

Inventively tweaking a popular premise, Jensen pits two Incredibles-style families with superpowers against each other—until a new challenge rises to unite them.

The Johnsons invariably spit at the mere mention of their hated rivals, the Baileys. Likewise, all Baileys habitually shake their fists when referring to the Johnsons. Having long looked forward to getting a superpower so that he too can battle his clan’s nemeses, Rafter Bailey is devastated when, instead of being able to fly or something else cool, he acquires the “power” to strike a match on soft polyester. But when hated classmate Juanita Johnson turns up newly endowed with a similarly bogus power and, against all family tradition, they compare notes, it becomes clear that something fishy is going on. Both families regard themselves as the heroes and their rivals as the villains. Someone has been inciting them to fight each other. Worse yet, that someone has apparently developed a device that turns real superpowers into silly ones. Teaching themselves on the fly how to get past their prejudice and work together, Rafter, his little brother, Benny, and Juanita follow a well-laid-out chain of clues and deductions to the climactic discovery of a third, genuinely nefarious family, the Joneses, and a fiendishly clever scheme to dispose of all the Baileys and Johnsons at once. Can they carry the day?

A solid debut: fluent, funny and eminently sequel-worthy. (Adventure. 10-12)

Pub Date: Jan. 21, 2014

ISBN: 978-0-06-220961-0

Page Count: 256

Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: Nov. 1, 2013

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2013

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