Timely, insightful, and highly recommended.
Burdened by contradictory expectations from her high-achieving, divorced parents, a quiet tween is challenged to assert herself.
Lilla’s parents, like many in their small college town, are academics. Her dad heads the art museum; her mom is an entomologist. Stellar seventh-grade test scores set Lilla on course for the prestigious magnet high school where students focus on either arts or STEM subjects. Weary of the constant pressure to excel, to pick a career path before she’s 13, Lilla fantasizes about attending public high school and pursuing interests beyond the career-focused specialization her parents have convinced themselves she wants, but she remains outwardly compliant. Her passivity is no secret to her friends Vivi and Knox. When Vivi chooses bravery for their summer goal, Lilla agrees to express her feelings honestly, without resorting to white lies or silence. She struggles to manage conflicting expectations for girls—to be simultaneously ambitious and competitive, feminine and emotionally yielding. While that’s exhausting enough, contending with sexism and street harassment along with her first crush proves downright paralyzing. Choosing never to hurt others’ feelings, Lilla realizes, means always prioritizing them over expressing her own (ruthless self-criticism is another trap). Vivi’s dad is Japanese and her mother is French Canadian; other major characters are White. With compassion, wry humor, and pinpoint accuracy, Parks weaves the multiple challenges facing adolescent girls into a compelling, seamless narrative.
Timely, insightful, and highly recommended. (Fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: March 1, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-8075-7660-1
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Whitman
Review Posted Online: Dec. 14, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic.
Chainani works an elaborate sea change akin to Gregory Maguire’s Wicked (1995), though he leaves the waters muddied.
Every four years, two children, one regarded as particularly nice and the other particularly nasty, are snatched from the village of Gavaldon by the shadowy School Master to attend the divided titular school. Those who survive to graduate become major or minor characters in fairy tales. When it happens to sweet, Disney princess–like Sophie and her friend Agatha, plain of features, sour of disposition and low of self-esteem, they are both horrified to discover that they’ve been dropped not where they expect but at Evil and at Good respectively. Gradually—too gradually, as the author strings out hundreds of pages of Hogwarts-style pranks, classroom mishaps and competitions both academic and romantic—it becomes clear that the placement wasn’t a mistake at all. Growing into their true natures amid revelations and marked physical changes, the two spark escalating rivalry between the wings of the school. This leads up to a vicious climactic fight that sees Good and Evil repeatedly switching sides. At this point, readers are likely to feel suddenly left behind, as, thanks to summary deus ex machina resolutions, everything turns out swell(ish).
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic. (Fantasy. 11-13)Pub Date: May 14, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-06-210489-2
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
Brava!
From award winner Telgemeier (Smile, 2010), a pitch-perfect graphic novel portrayal of a middle school musical, adroitly capturing the drama both on and offstage.
Seventh-grader Callie Marin is over-the-moon to be on stage crew again this year for Eucalyptus Middle School’s production of Moon over Mississippi. Callie's just getting over popular baseball jock and eighth-grader Greg, who crushed her when he left Callie to return to his girlfriend, Bonnie, the stuck-up star of the play. Callie's healing heart is quickly captured by Justin and Jesse Mendocino, the two very cute twins who are working on the play with her. Equally determined to make the best sets possible with a shoestring budget and to get one of the Mendocino boys to notice her, the immensely likable Callie will find this to be an extremely drama-filled experience indeed. The palpably engaging and whip-smart characterization ensures that the charisma and camaraderie run high among those working on the production. When Greg snubs Callie in the halls and misses her reference to Guys and Dolls, one of her friends assuredly tells her, "Don't worry, Cal. We’re the cool kids….He's the dork." With the clear, stylish art, the strongly appealing characters and just the right pinch of drama, this book will undoubtedly make readers stand up and cheer.
Brava! (Graphic fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-545-32698-8
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Graphix/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: July 21, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2012
SEEN & HEARD
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