Dysfunctional-mother fiction is a crowded genre; this one lacks sufficient punch to distinguish itself.
Hope didn’t even know that Grace was missing—she thought the girl to whom she’s secretly written for years was imaginary.
Besides Grace, whom else could the friendless Hope talk to? Her apparently depressed, unemployed mother, Flora, mostly stays in bed, and her Granny is a bit crusty. The full dimensions of her mother’s situation gradually emerge: Flora never really knew Hope’s father, and worse, she gave up Hope’s twin, Grace, for adoption after the 2-year-old developed polio. Then Granny dies, leaving their sad situation even more uncertain, so Hope does what a resourceful girl can: She embarks on a plan to find Grace and heal her mother’s pain. Though the story is set in 1954, there is disappointingly little period flavor. Hope’s childlike voice and some of her letters capture the 11-year-old’s pain and frustration but often fail to fully convey the necessary distress, leaving readers to fill in the many blanks. She reports her mother’s shortcomings, but her sometimes-blithe pluck in this undermines the tension. (The story kicks off the Gutsy Girl series, perhaps accounting for Hope’s attitude.) Given Flora’s unfortunate history with men, her maturing relationship with Mr. Pinn, a lawyer whose role ensures a feel-good conclusion, seems improbable. Citra wraps it all up too neatly and sweetly for full believability.
Dysfunctional-mother fiction is a crowded genre; this one lacks sufficient punch to distinguish itself. (Historical fiction. 10-13)Pub Date: March 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-927583-25-8
Page Count: 200
Publisher: Second Story Press
Review Posted Online: Jan. 28, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2014
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic.
Chainani works an elaborate sea change akin to Gregory Maguire’s Wicked (1995), though he leaves the waters muddied.
Every four years, two children, one regarded as particularly nice and the other particularly nasty, are snatched from the village of Gavaldon by the shadowy School Master to attend the divided titular school. Those who survive to graduate become major or minor characters in fairy tales. When it happens to sweet, Disney princess–like Sophie and her friend Agatha, plain of features, sour of disposition and low of self-esteem, they are both horrified to discover that they’ve been dropped not where they expect but at Evil and at Good respectively. Gradually—too gradually, as the author strings out hundreds of pages of Hogwarts-style pranks, classroom mishaps and competitions both academic and romantic—it becomes clear that the placement wasn’t a mistake at all. Growing into their true natures amid revelations and marked physical changes, the two spark escalating rivalry between the wings of the school. This leads up to a vicious climactic fight that sees Good and Evil repeatedly switching sides. At this point, readers are likely to feel suddenly left behind, as, thanks to summary deus ex machina resolutions, everything turns out swell(ish).
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic. (Fantasy. 11-13)Pub Date: May 14, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-06-210489-2
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2013
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Cinematic, over-the-top decadence, a tense race against time, and lessons on what’s truly valuable.
A reward of $5,000,000 almost ruins everything for two seventh graders.
On a class trip to New York City, Felix and Benji find a wallet belonging to social media billionaire Laura Friendly. Benji, a well-off, chaotic kid with learning disabilities, swipes $20 from the wallet before they send it back to its owner. Felix, a poor, shy, rule-follower, reluctantly consents. So when Laura Friendly herself arrives to give them a reward for the returned wallet, she’s annoyed. To teach her larcenous helpers a lesson, Laura offers them a deal: a $20,000 college scholarship or slightly over $5 million cash—but with strings attached. The boys must spend all the money in 30 days, with legal stipulations preventing them from giving anything away, investing, or telling anyone about it. The glorious windfall quickly grows to become a chore and then a torment as the boys appear increasingly selfish and irresponsible to the adults in their lives. They rent luxury cars, hire a (wonderful) philosophy undergrad as a chauffeur, take their families to Disney World, and spend thousands on in-app game purchases. Yet, surrounded by hedonistically described piles of loot and filthy lucre, the boys long for simpler fundamentals. The absorbing spending spree reads like a fun family film, gleefully stuffed with the very opulence it warns against. Major characters are White.
Cinematic, over-the-top decadence, a tense race against time, and lessons on what’s truly valuable. (mathematical explanations) (Fiction. 10-12)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-17525-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: June 29, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2020
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