A fun, thoughtful page-turner about exorcising the expectations of others to achieve self-acceptance.
A 12-year-old confronts doubts about her Jewish identity to defeat the evil spirit she accidentally unleashes on her cousin.
Ruby yearns to be the favorite of Grandma Yvette, her paternal grandmother, but she drops matzah balls down the stairs and enjoys science more than cooking. Because Ruby’s mom is Catholic, Grandma Yvette prefers sharing Jewish traditions with Ruby’s overachieving cousin Sarah, who has two Jewish parents. For her part, Sarah is annoyingly eager to please. While this favoritism doesn’t read as harshly as the overt antisemitism Ruby encounters from her maternal grandparents, it’s all hard for Ruby, who, as a patrilineal Jew, painfully longs for acceptance. Resentful of seemingly perfect Sarah, Ruby picks a fight that winds up with them accidentally opening the forbidden box in Grandma Yvette’s basement that contains a dybbuk, releasing a rebellious streak in Sarah. When Sarah acts out—eating a nonkosher cheeseburger and attempting a dangerous crime—Ruby realizes Sarah might be possessed by the dybbuk. Since only a pious Jew can dispel one, Ruby pushes through questions of faith in her quest to save her cousin. This exciting story sensitively explores questions of identity and belonging in a Jewish context. Ruby is Ashkenazi Jewish and White. Her Hebrew school includes Jewish students of color, and a biracial Chinese Jewish friend helps Ruby reframe her struggles with identity.
A fun, thoughtful page-turner about exorcising the expectations of others to achieve self-acceptance. (Paranormal. 8-12)Pub Date: Aug. 9, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-250-24513-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: Oct. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A gritty story filled with hope and idealism.
A young boy is forced to leave the Chennai jail that is the only home he’s ever known.
When Kabir is deemed too old to stay and is sent out into the world all alone, separated from his wrongfully imprisoned mother, he decides to search for the family of the father he has never met to try to save his mother from her unjustly long sentence. Armed with faith, instinctive wits, and the ability to run fast, Kabir escapes danger and meets Rani, a teenage girl from the marginalized Kurava, or Roma, people who is traveling with her parrot. She teaches Kabir, who has a Hindu mother and a Muslim father, about caste dynamics and survival on the streets. She accompanies him to Bengaluru, where Kabir eventually meets his paternal grandparents. Along the way, their experiences reveal the invisibility of low-caste people in Indian society, tensions between neighboring states over water supplies, and the unexpected kindness of helpful strangers. Kabir’s longing for freedom and justice underscores bittersweet twists and turns that resolve in an upbeat conclusion, celebrating his namesake, a saint who sought to unify Muslims and Hindus. Kabir engages readers by voicing his thoughts, vulnerability, and optimism: While his early physical environment was confined within prison walls, his imagination was nourished by stories and songs. This compelling novel develops at a brisk pace, advanced by evocative details and short chapters full of action.
A gritty story filled with hope and idealism. (author's note) (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 7, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-11247-2
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Nancy Paulsen Books
Review Posted Online: June 23, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2021
PERSPECTIVES
PERSPECTIVES
Supernatural mystery meets generational drama with hopeful endings for all.
Eleven-year-old Frank must solve a supernatural mystery to save his new home.
As fifth grade comes to an end, Frank Fernández is looking forward to finally staying put in Alabama for a second year, as promised, after a childhood spent following his parents’ home renovation work all across the country. Frequent relocation has made Frank wary of forming friendships or making plans, but his hopes for more stability are temporarily dashed when his parents announce plans to renovate a lighthouse in the Florida Keys, near where his mother grew up and his father’s home country of Cuba. Papi promises this will be their last move, though: The lighthouse will be theirs. But from their first day on Spectacle Key, things seem to go wrong: Tensions rise between his parents, and Frank’s hopes of a forever home are under threat from seemingly supernatural forces. In order to put down roots, Frank and new ghostly friend Connie, a White girl with freckles, must discover what secrets the island is hiding, uncovering Frank’s own family roots along the way. Frank is a fan of horror—he names his new Great Dane puppy Mary Shelley. But though there is some mild peril to be found, rather than a ghostly thriller, this is an appealing, lightly spooky family drama with valuable lessons for those who would hide from a difficult past instead of confronting and healing generational trauma.
Supernatural mystery meets generational drama with hopeful endings for all. (Supernatural. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 6, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-06-313481-2
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 12, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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