This spare, powerful, and unsentimental remembrance of a bleak youth is an accessible yet emotionally challenging text.
Years after high school, Mog remembers his brief time with a now-dead friend in this British import.
After a phone call alerting him to Chris’ death, Mog looks back on his time as a 13-year-old at violent, cruel Corpus Christi High School. There was vicious bullying from teachers as well as students, and Mog wanted only to keep his head down and avoid being a target. It’s unclear why Chris even befriended Mog and his group; wasn’t he too cool for them? But he did, and they had fun—as much as anyone could have fun in that grim, run-down place—telling jokes, shoplifting, giving what they’d stolen to girls or tossing the items into the polluted stream by the school. In this brief, spare novella, Mog details his jealousy and eventual cruelty when Chris added Duffy, the boy everyone victimized or ignored, to their circle. Carnegie Medal winner McGowan’s minimalist prose becomes lyrically lovely in a moment of viscerally brutal animal cruelty. The narrator has no answers as to why he made the choices he did, but there’s enough in the bare-bones vignettes for readers to speculate. Although some of the language is Americanized, the text’s Britishness adds to the sense of place without detracting from its appeal to striving readers. In King’s occasional stark, atmospheric, grayscale illustrations, the characters largely present white.
This spare, powerful, and unsentimental remembrance of a bleak youth is an accessible yet emotionally challenging text. (Fiction. 13-18)Pub Date: July 14, 2026
ISBN: 9781454962847
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Union Square & Co.
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
There’s not much plot here, but readers will relish the opportunity to climb inside Autumn’s head.
The finely drawn characters capture readers’ attention in this debut.
Autumn and Phineas, nicknamed Finny, were born a week apart; their mothers are still best friends. Growing up, Autumn and Finny were like peas in a pod despite their differences: Autumn is “quirky and odd,” while Finny is “sweet and shy and everyone like[s] him.” But in eighth grade, Autumn and Finny stop being friends due to an unexpected kiss. They drift apart and find new friends, but their friendship keeps asserting itself at parties, shared holiday gatherings and random encounters. In the summer after graduation, Autumn and Finny reconnect and are finally ready to be more than friends. But on August 8, everything changes, and Autumn has to rely on all her strength to move on. Autumn’s coming-of-age is sensitively chronicled, with a wide range of experiences and events shaping her character. Even secondary characters are well-rounded, with their own histories and motivations.
There’s not much plot here, but readers will relish the opportunity to climb inside Autumn’s head. (Fiction. 14 & up)Pub Date: April 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4022-7782-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
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