An unexceptional story of family turmoil.
Sisters are doing it for themselves. (For diametrically opposite reasons.)
Twelve-year-old Autumn’s summer plans for exploring the delights of Manhattan with her best friend—going on hunts for the best pizza joints, ice cream parlors, and tea shops—are ruined when her mother becomes engaged to Harrison (aka Harristinks), her boring boyfriend of two years who has a boring daughter of Autumn’s age called Linnea. The wedding will take place in only one month’s time. Suddenly, Autumn, her mother, and her college-bound brother are moving to East Hammond, Connecticut, and Autumn’s world is completely upended. She hatches a plan to break up the happy couple and recruits Linnea to go along, tempting her with the idea that both families will be better off separate. Linnea seemingly agrees, but it turns out that she may have some plans of her own. The story is droll, if somewhat predictable, but overplays the self-centered bride trope to the point that readers may actively be rooting for the wedding to fail long after the shallow resolution that is supposed to realign Autumn with her mother. Savvy and sympathetic readers may question why Autumn is being deprived of visiting the best friend in the city whom she desperately misses when Harrison and Linnea took the train into the city weekly during the courtship. Main characters read White by default; there is a charming same-sex crush plotline.
An unexceptional story of family turmoil. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: March 14, 2023
ISBN: 978-0-593-56868-2
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
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
A fizzy mix of low humor and brisk action, with promise of more of both to come.
Heroic deeds await Isaac after his little sister runs into the school basement and is captured by elves.
Even though their school is a spooky old castle transplanted stone by stone from Germany, Isaac and his two friends, Max and Emma, little suspect that an entire magical kingdom lies beneath—a kingdom run by elves, policed by oversized rats in uniform, and populated by captives who start out human but undergo transformative “weirding.” These revelations await Isaac and sidekicks as they nerve themselves to trail his bossy younger sib, Lily, through a shadowy storeroom and into a tunnel, across a wide lake, and into a city lit by half-human fireflies, where they are cast together into a dungeon. Can they escape before they themselves start changing? Gibson pits his doughty rescuers against such adversaries as an elven monarch who emits truly kingly belches and a once-human jailer with a self-picking nose. Tests of mettle range from a riddle contest to a face-off with the menacing head rat Shelfliver, and a helter-skelter chase finally leads rescuers and rescued back to the aboveground. Plainly, though, there is further rescuing to be done.
A fizzy mix of low humor and brisk action, with promise of more of both to come. (Fantasy. 9-11)Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-62370-255-7
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Capstone Young Readers
Review Posted Online: June 28, 2015
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