Accessible queer joy.
Queer teens in the north of England start an activist club and organize their town’s first Pride event in Quirke’s debut.
Imogen Quinn, a bisexual 16-year-old who uses she/they pronouns, is dismayed by the inaccessibility—an inescapable sensory overload—at the Pride festival in a nearby city. They decide to invite Oliver Armstrong, the school soccer team’s openly gay captain, to join them in creating the Ardenpool Youth Activist Society. At first, parentified Ollie, who helps care for his younger sister and is dealing with his parents’ recent announcement that they’re divorcing, agrees only begrudgingly. But eventually Imogen and the club genuinely grow on him. Though the book has a romance subplot, the friendship between white-presenting Imogen and Ollie, who’s white and Japanese, is, refreshingly, the primary relationship. The club encounters realistic setbacks: a town council that doesn’t follow through on its environmental promises, an unsupportive (and possibly transphobic) headteacher, and the school leadership’s reallocation of the funds the club members raised. Imogen is autistic, and fellow club member Louisa, who’s Black, has Ehlers-Danlos syndrome and often uses a wheelchair. The author heavily explores accessibility needs for queer disabled people, and although the topic and information conveyed are welcome, the writing occasionally veers into a didactic tone when discussing specifics. Both Imogen and Ollie have complicated relationships with their fathers, and both make headway in realistically incremental ways.
Accessible queer joy. (author’s note) (Fiction. 12-18)Pub Date: April 7, 2026
ISBN: 9781499818291
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Yellow Jacket
Review Posted Online: April 6, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2026
An ode to the children of migrants who have been taken away.
A Mexican American boy takes on heavy responsibilities when his family is torn apart.
Mateo’s life is turned upside down the day U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents show up unsuccessfully seeking his Pa at his New York City bodega. The Garcias live in fear until the day both parents are picked up; his Pa is taken to jail and his Ma to a detention center. The adults around Mateo offer support to him and his 7-year-old sister, Sophie, however, he knows he is now responsible for caring for her and the bodega as well as trying to survive junior year—that is, if he wants to fulfill his dream to enter the drama program at the Tisch School of the Arts and become an actor. Mateo’s relationships with his friends Kimmie and Adam (a potential love interest) also suffer repercussions as he keeps his situation a secret. Kimmie is half Korean (her other half is unspecified) and Adam is Italian American; Mateo feels disconnected from them, less American, and with worries they can’t understand. He talks himself out of choosing a safer course of action, a decision that deepens the story. Mateo’s self-awareness and inner monologue at times make him seem older than 16, and, with significant turmoil in the main plot, some side elements feel underdeveloped. Aleman’s narrative joins the ranks of heart-wrenching stories of migrant families who have been separated.
An ode to the children of migrants who have been taken away. (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: May 4, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-7595-5605-8
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 22, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Exactly what the title promises.
A grieving teen’s devotion to romance films might ruin her chances at actual romance.
Liz Buxbaum has always adored rom-coms, not least for helping her still feel close to her screenwriter mother, who died when she was little. Liz hopes that her senior year might turn into a real-life romantic fantasy, as an old crush has moved back to town, cuter and nicer than ever. Surely she can get Michael to ask her to prom. If only Wes, the annoying boy next door, would help her with her scheming! This charming, fluffy concoction manages to pack into one goofy plot every conceivable trope, from fake dating to the makeover to the big misunderstanding. Creative, quirky, daydreaming Liz is just shy of an annoying stereotype, saved by a dry wit and unresolved grief and anger. Wes makes for a delightful bad boy with a good heart, and supporting characters—including a sassy best friend, a perfect popular rival, even a (not really) evil stepmother—all get the opportunity to transcend their roles. The only villain here is Liz’s lovelorn imagination, provoking her into foolish lies that cause actual hurt feelings; but she is sufficiently self-aware to make amends just in time for the most important trope of all: a blissfully happy ending. All characters seem to be White by default.
Exactly what the title promises. (Romance. 12-18)Pub Date: May 4, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5344-6762-0
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Feb. 22, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021
BOOK TO SCREEN
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