A sweet and gentle story of self-discovery and a beautiful addition to the growing genre of middle-grade realism featuring...
Sunny St. James has just had a heart transplant and is ready to take three crucial steps into her New Life.
Step No. 1: Do “awesome amazing things” her cardiomyopathy kept her from doing. Step No. 2: “Find a new best friend” to replace Margot, who betrayed her trust. Step No. 3: “Find a boy” to kiss, “because kisses.” Sunny achieves the first two steps almost simultaneously: She goes swimming in the ocean for the first time since her diagnosis and she meets blue-haired Quinn Ríos Rivera, and the two agree to be best friends. The third proves to be difficult, because Sunny finds she doesn’t want to kiss a boy. She wants to kiss Quinn. Sunny’s struggles are numerous but well-balanced and never overwhelm readers. The 12-year-old’s mother, Lena, who gave Sunny to her best friend, Kate, to raise eight years ago, is ready to be part of Sunny’s life. Sunny isn’t sure she wants to know Lena, a recovering alcoholic. She’s also uncertain as to which feelings are hers and which ones belong to her unknown heart donor, but her thoughtful, present-tense voice as she parses these feelings is all hers. Quinn is Puerto Rican; Kate’s boyfriend is black; and Lena’s husband is South Asian. Assume whiteness for everyone else.
A sweet and gentle story of self-discovery and a beautiful addition to the growing genre of middle-grade realism featuring girls who like girls. (Fiction. 8-13)Pub Date: March 26, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-316-51553-5
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Dec. 12, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An insightful, action-packed, and thought-provoking adventure.
In a dystopian future ravaged by climate change, a 12-year-old tech genius must save her community from an evil government.
Raised on her family’s strawberry farm in the Valley, Yolanda Cicerón, who has Cuban roots, aspires to become a neurolink surgeon, install computer chips in human skulls, and live in Silo, the most developed city around. But Camila, Yoly’s older sister and her guardian since their parents’ exile, can’t afford the tuition. After Yoly secretly accepts a scholarship from Silo’s Mayor Blackburn to fund her studies—against Cami’s explicit wishes—she realizes the scholarship’s terms require her to go on Retreat, a life-threatening mission in territory plagued by extreme weather disasters. Terrified, Cami finally shares secret family history that explains her mistrust of the mayor. Yoly belatedly understands that the System that purportedly keeps everyone safe from nature is actually oppressive and is spying on them. Looking for a way to pay off the scholarship and avoid the Retreat, Yoly and Cami discover a honeybee colony on their farm and recognize that the bees can pollinate fields and thereby reduce people’s dependence on Silo. But questioning and innovation are dangerous under an authoritarian regime, and when people dear to Yoly are taken away, she must fight to save them and bring down the whole corrupt System. Readers will root for Yoly, who is as kind and brave as she is smart, in this page-turning story that deals with all-too-relevant themes.
An insightful, action-packed, and thought-provoking adventure. (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: July 12, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-06-300655-3
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: April 12, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Quirky and smart.
Is going back in time about changing outcomes or changing perspective? McKinley’s going to find out.
Sixth grader McKinley is excited about Time Hop, her town’s annual history celebration, which this time is celebrating the year 1993. In 1993, her father was also a sixth grader—and at the same school where the event is held. Taught to sew by her Grandma Bev, a talented seamstress even after suffering a stroke in 1993 that affected her speech and left half her body paralyzed, McKinley creates a fabulously retro outfit for the fashion show. But on the big day, her single father needs to work, and he asks McKinley to stay home to give Grandma Bev her medications. Instead, she decides to bring her grandma to the Time Hop, but it’s a disaster. McKinley has a fight with her best friend, then her father shows up and orders her off the runway. McKinley runs away—and right back in time to 1993. The third-person voice is bright and energetic, while vivid descriptions capture the cast of predominantly White characters as their present and past selves. McKinley is especially endearing, ringing true as a confused, creative, well-meaning tween who realizes she may have been sent back in time to solve a problem—but which one? Or is this journey all about gaining insight so she can better handle her life? The philosophical questions are delivered with a light touch.
Pub Date: Aug. 22, 2023
ISBN: 9781524738624
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: May 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2023
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