Harrowing and focused on an increasingly urgent issue.
The long trek to “El Norte” becomes even more perilous for two young climate refugees when they’re separated from their parents.
Expanding on the experiences of a character who appeared briefly in his Two Degrees (2022), Gratz focuses on the gut-wrenching perils 13-year-old Daniela López endures as she and her little brother Carlos make their way from Mexico City to Ciudad Juárez on the U.S. border. Driven from their coffee farm in Honduras by spreading blight and looking for safe refuge, Daniela and her family join a northbound “caravan” of fellow refugees—only to be kidnapped in Mexico by gangsters. Separated from their parents after a tumultuous escape but hoping for a reunion, she and Carlos clamber atop a series of freight trains, all dubbed “The Beast,” for a long and exhausting journey that proves rife with constant, deadly dangers ranging from sudden bumps and low tunnels to sweeps by both immigration officials and predatory bandits. Some readers may be left with questions about concrete details, such as how the children were able to get enough to eat and drink while riding The Beast. Still, the flight’s profound terrors, both immediate and imagined, are so sharply felt that readers can’t help but respond. Though the journey is harsh, the author ends on a hopeful note that will hearten young readers. The cast reads as Latine.
Harrowing and focused on an increasingly urgent issue. (map, afterword) (Fiction. 10-12)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2026
ISBN: 9798225063191
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: June 1, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: tomorrow
Wholesome shading to bland, but well-stocked with exotic creatures and locales, plus an agreeable cast headed by a child...
A San Diego preteen learns that she’s an elf, with a place in magic school if she moves to the elves’ hidden realm.
Having felt like an outsider since a knock on the head at age 5 left her able to read minds, Sophie is thrilled when hunky teen stranger Fitz convinces her that she’s not human at all and transports her to the land of Lumenaria, where the ageless elves live. Taken in by a loving couple who run a sanctuary for extinct and mythical animals, Sophie quickly gathers friends and rivals at Foxfire, a distinctly Hogwarts-style school. She also uncovers both clues to her mysterious origins and hints that a rash of strangely hard-to-quench wildfires back on Earth are signs of some dark scheme at work. Though Messenger introduces several characters with inner conflicts and ambiguous agendas, Sophie herself is more simply drawn as a smart, radiant newcomer who unwillingly becomes the center of attention while developing what turn out to be uncommonly powerful magical abilities—reminiscent of the younger Harry Potter, though lacking that streak of mischievousness that rescues Harry from seeming a little too perfect. The author puts her through a kidnapping and several close brushes with death before leaving her poised, amid hints of a higher destiny and still-anonymous enemies, for sequels.
Wholesome shading to bland, but well-stocked with exotic creatures and locales, plus an agreeable cast headed by a child who, while overly fond of screaming, rises to every challenge. (Fantasy. 10-12)Pub Date: Oct. 2, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-4424-4593-2
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: July 17, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2012
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
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