Even though the story’s resolution is slightly contrived, readers will be cheering for these girls as they bravely go forth,...
Wise-cracking eighth-grader Maureen is the self-described “anti-cool” heroine of this droll tale of a talent-show showdown.
When Maureen impetuously foils the nefarious lunchtime plot of the ThreePees, the reigning triumvirate of the “Pretty, Popular, and Perfect” crowd, a unique alliance comes together. Suddenly Maureen becomes an unwilling co-conspirator with fellow social misfits Allergy Alice and Beanpole Barbara to wrest talent-show victory from the ThreePees. With a keen eye, Sitomer portrays the callous social hierarchy of middle school. Although Maureen wields her often self-deprecating humor as a shield, Alice and Barbara, along with readers, see the girl behind the bravado. In their bid to take a stand, a fragile friendship forms among the trio. As tensions increase, the girls’ histories are revealed: Maureen struggles with her feelings over her father’s long-ago abandonment, and Alice harbors a devastating secret. Despite her somewhat abrasive humor, Maureen remains a likable character. Unfortunately, the ThreePees remain flatly one dimensional, never breaking out of their stereotypical roles.
Even though the story’s resolution is slightly contrived, readers will be cheering for these girls as they bravely go forth, proudly proclaiming their nerdiness. (Fiction. 11-13)Pub Date: July 5, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-4231-3996-6
Page Count: 230
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Review Posted Online: June 20, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
If it were a Golden Age comic, this tale of ridiculous science, space dogs and humanoid aliens with flashlights in their hands might not be bad. Alas... Number Four is a fugitive from the planet Lorien, which is sloppily described as both "hundreds of lightyears away" and "billions of miles away." Along with eight other children and their caretakers, Number Four escaped from the Mogadorian invasion of Lorien ten years ago. Now the nine children are scattered on Earth, hiding. Luckily and fairly nonsensically, the planet's Elders cast a charm on them so they could only be killed in numerical order, but children one through three are dead, and Number Four is next. Too bad he's finally gained a friend and a girlfriend and doesn't want to run. At least his newly developing alien powers means there will be screen-ready combat and explosions. Perhaps most idiotic, "author" Pittacus Lore is a character in this fiction—but the first-person narrator is someone else entirely. Maybe this is a natural extension of lightly hidden actual author James Frey's drive to fictionalize his life, but literature it ain't. (Science fiction. 11-13)
Pub Date: Aug. 17, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-06-196955-3
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2010
Characteristically provocative gothic comedy, with sublime undertones.
An exhilarating summer marked by death, gore and fire sparks deep thoughts in a small-town lad not uncoincidentally named “Jack Gantos.”
The gore is all Jack’s, which to his continuing embarrassment “would spray out of my nose holes like dragon flames” whenever anything exciting or upsetting happens. And that would be on every other page, seemingly, as even though Jack’s feuding parents unite to ground him for the summer after several mishaps, he does get out. He mixes with the undertaker’s daughter, a band of Hell’s Angels out to exact fiery revenge for a member flattened in town by a truck and, especially, with arthritic neighbor Miss Volker, for whom he furnishes the “hired hands” that transcribe what becomes a series of impassioned obituaries for the local paper as elderly town residents suddenly begin passing on in rapid succession. Eventually the unusual body count draws the—justified, as it turns out—attention of the police. Ultimately, the obits and the many Landmark Books that Jack reads (this is 1962) in his hours of confinement all combine in his head to broaden his perspective about both history in general and the slow decline his own town is experiencing.
Characteristically provocative gothic comedy, with sublime undertones. (Autobiographical fiction. 11-13)Pub Date: Sept. 13, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-374-37993-3
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: April 5, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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