Nicknamed "Cantwait" by his classmates for his impulsive behavior, awkward sixth-grader Aaron impatiently waits for several things. His father, gone for eight years, is returning with a surprise. Class bully Tufan threatens retribution. The grandmother who has raised him goes for cancer surgery. This moving story looks at both family and school life from the point of view of a boy trying hard to fit into a world he doesn’t quite understand. His loving Gran keeps after him, gently but steadily; the school counselor, Karen, works with him on “reading faces”; and a Big Brother has given him helpful tips. Aaron’s friendship with classmate Jeremy, described from Jeremy’s point of view in The Mealworm Diaries (2009), is sorely tested. Veteran storyteller Kerz moves the third-person narration along quickly, making it jump from scene to scene like Aaron’s attention. Realistically, not every teacher is patient with this challenging boy. His father doesn’t live up to all his expectations, nor he, his father’s. But the surprise turns out to be a positive one; his new, pregnant stepmother welcomes him sympathetically. The details of school life are believable and familiar, and the ending leaves Aaron and readers waiting for a hopeful outcome—the day when he and Gran can move to join his father and new family in Dawson. This companion book stands alone but will surely send readers back to read the first. (Fiction. 9-12)
Pub Date: March 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-55469-362-7
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Orca
Review Posted Online: Feb. 10, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
This humorous and heartwarming glimpse into an immigrant family’s experiences entertains and educates.
Being a first-generation American makes school more challenging for a plucky tween boy.
Ming Lee faces middle school with his usual bowl haircut (administered by his mom), the embarrassment of thrift store shopping for back-to-school clothing, and a fervent wish to just get through it all unnoticed. His other deep desire is a pair of Air Elevates sneakers—much too costly for his extremely frugal Chinese-immigrant parents to ever buy him. After initially being assigned to an ESL class (even though English is his first and only language), Ming is placed in Honors English. He makes two new friends, Vikrum (who’s cued Indian) and Marcus (who’s Black). The trio support each other through Halloween hilarity, Ming’s crush, basketball mishaps, and school candy sales turf wars. But the real test of friendship comes when Ming, in a desperate move after his sneaker fund is stolen, involves his buddies in a bungled shoplifting attempt. In the aftermath, Ming learns about the power of family, religion, friends, and self-acceptance. His parents, grappling with their own tribulations around finances, racism, and familial duty, gain insight into Ming’s situation, improving their family bonds. In this graphic novel inspired by the author’s life, Chung inserts humor and love beside moments of pain and frustration in a way that meshes stylistically with the straightforward dialogue and clean, simple drawings.
This humorous and heartwarming glimpse into an immigrant family’s experiences entertains and educates. (author’s note, how to make a graphic novel) (Graphic fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: April 22, 2025
ISBN: 9781250887306
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
Layered, engaging, and emotionally true.
Eleven-year-old Wunder Ellis abandons his study of miracles when his newborn sister never makes it home from the hospital.
The third-person point of view stays firmly with Wunder, so named because he was a miracle for his parents. He was 5 when a numinous experience inspired him: The spiral wood grain of the old house at the town cemetery spun before his eyes, and the bird brushing past him seemed to fly from his own heart. Now, though, he plans to rid himself of his catalog of miracles, the journal his parents gave him. He feels disconnected from his friends, and his parents’ grief is complicated and overwhelming. Faye Ji-Min Lee, an irrepressible classmate, refuses to let him give up. Redman explores faith, the intertwined nature of sorrow and joy, and the transformative process of grief through Wunder’s eyes in a part-fantasy, part-realistic adventure with genuinely humorous moments. A verse (unattributed) from Corinthians 15:51 appears throughout: in the voice of a minister at the baby’s funeral, on a gravestone, and in words spoken by the woman (is she a witch? Or something else?) who appears at DoorWay House by the cemetery: “We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed.” Wunder and his family present white; Faye refers to her Korean church; one of Wunder’s friends is Latinx.
Layered, engaging, and emotionally true. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: July 30, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-374-30974-9
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: April 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2019
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