Clements (Things Not Seen, below, etc.) offers a heartfelt and well-meaning but somewhat simplistic novella that explores racial-consciousness–raising. When sixth-grader Phil Moreli attempts to bring lunch money to his younger brother in their school’s hallway, he quickly meets up with his sibling—or so he thinks—because there’s his brother’s very distinctive jacket. He is startled when its wearer turns out to be an African-American boy whom Phil has never seen. He wrongly leaps to the conclusion that this boy stole the jacket and a brawl ensues. Once the combatants face off in the principal’s office, the truth about how the jacket came into this stranger’s possession comes out. Daniel, the African-American boy, had been given the jacket as a gift by his grandmother who, in turn, received it from her employer—Phil’s mother—for whom she works as a cleaning woman. Daniel is angry that a white boy would automatically think of him as a thief and humiliated at an act of what he considers condescending charity. He storms out, first throwing the jacket on the floor. Regarding this as a gauntlet and feeling ashamed, Phil is now galvanized into reassessing his feelings and assumptions about African-Americans. He realizes that he actually knows little about them and is convinced that he is prejudiced. Phil’s attempts to come to grips with his guilt and chagrin will help young readers reevaluate their own attitudes toward people who are different from themselves. Clements mostly steers clear of easy answers and admirably avoids the cliché of having the boys become fast friends at the end, though each does come to realize that the other is “a good guy.” (Fiction. 8-12)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-689-82595-1
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2002
Hilarious and joyful.
Twelve-year-old Gabby is a golden child, and nothing can go wrong, until it does.
Gabby, the star pitcher for Luther Junior High, is about to complete her second no-hitter of the season when the game is suspended, everyone is evacuated, and the school is closed because of an asbestos situation. The young Latina is assigned to Piper Bell Academy for the duration, a very upscale private school. She creates a playbook, definitely not a mere diary, to state her goals and strategies for maintaining her status in her new school. She assumes that she will be begged to join the baseball team and achieve further greatness, all in spite of gentle warnings from her parents and best friend. But her plans go immediately, painfully awry and must be listed as losses in her book. Feeling completely vanquished, she quits baseball and joins the marvelously inept field hockey team. A bit of humble pie and determination to do the right thing brings about a satisfying conclusion. Middle-grade readers will identify with Gabby’s preteen angst, laugh at her mostly self-inflicted struggles, and cheer for her success. The playbook format, heavily illustrated with doodles and delightful action sketches, also serves the purpose of describing the characters’ physical appearances, including skin color and ethnicity, which are implied by naming conventions but never stated in the text.
Hilarious and joyful. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: May 9, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-06-239180-3
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: March 5, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Remarkable.
A “half-Chinese and half-white” girl finds her place in a Little House–inspired fictional settler town.
After the death of her Chinese mother, Hanna, an aspiring dressmaker, and her White father seek a fresh start in Dakota Territory. It’s 1880, and they endure challenges similar to those faced by the Ingallses and so many others: dreary travel through unfamiliar lands, the struggle to protect food stores from nature, and the risky uncertainty of establishing a livelihood in a new place. Fans of the Little House books will find many of the small satisfactions of Laura’s stories—the mouthwatering descriptions of victuals, the attention to smart building construction, the glorious details of pleats and poplins—here in abundance. Park brings new depth to these well-trodden tales, though, as she renders visible both the xenophobia of the town’s White residents, which ranges in expression from microaggressions to full-out assault, and Hanna’s fight to overcome it with empathy and dignity. Hanna’s encounters with women of the nearby Ihanktonwan community are a treat; they hint at the whole world beyond a White settler perspective, a world all children deserve to learn about. A deeply personal author’s note about the story’s inspiration may leave readers wishing for additional resources for further study and more clarity about her use of Lakota/Dakota. While the cover art unfortunately evokes none of the richness of the text and instead insinuates insidious stereotypes, readers who sink into the pages behind it will be rewarded.
Remarkable. (Historical fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: March 3, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-328-78150-5
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
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