A believable portrait of middle school challenges.
Facing sixth grade, Izzy counts on her friends and family only to find dizzying change.
“The only cure for cold feet is to move your feet forward,” Izzy’s dad says, as she trudges through her first middle school year. The resilient fourth-grader from Izzy Kline Has Butterflies (2017) faces one challenge after another in this sequel, clearly set in the present day. Her friends move on, her father will remarry, her brother turns to tequila, her mother finds new love with the mother of her least favorite boy, and Izzy develops a crush on an exchange student from Spain. Each short chapter (or “small moment”) is headed with an appropriate title: “Drama,” “Long Division,” “Driver’s Ed,” “Home Economics,” “Spin the Bottle,” and so forth. The first-person narrative is written in free verse, using appropriate imagery to reflect each theme, to “paint the portrait of an argument,” as her English teacher suggests. This highly readable, realistic series of sixth-grade moments is punctuated by flashbacks that not only reflect Izzy’s wish to return to childhood comforts, but also provide background. Her family’s Jewish traditions turn up naturally in mentions of Christmas (not her holiday), Hanukkah, and the tallis used by the rabbi who married her grandfathers. Racism is not an issue for these characters (who, save one new brown-skinned character, seem to adhere to the white default), but same-sex relationships are, for some.
A believable portrait of middle school challenges. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: May 8, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-399-55084-3
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: March 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2018
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A successful call for creating and imagining, even if the story itself falls short.
In the dystopian, totalitarian world of 2099, 14-year-old Tessa and her family are desperate to solve the mystery of her twin brother Theo’s disappearance.
Tessa is growing up in a time when playgrounds are historical relics, surveillance cameras are everywhere, music is outlawed, and owning books is illegal. Under the absolute rule of Zokiris, the decadeslong leader of her territory, people are heavily controlled. When Theo vanishes under mysterious circumstances and his name is erased from the Territory Statistics list, Tessa’s 135-year-old neighbor, Miriam, gives the family contraband books that become central to figuring out Theo’s whereabouts. Most books have long since been seized and stored away in Building 903; Tessa is intrigued by their presence in her home, while her mother is terrified. Lowry, the acclaimed, award-winning author of The Giver (1993), shines in her creation of uncomfortably believable dystopian societies. Tessa’s painfully limited world is fully imagined, with its own history, laws, and norms. Her relationship with her brother reads as realistic and tender and is crucial to the mystery. Miriam is the most strongly developed character: wise and independent, unafraid and hopeful. While the climb to the book’s climax is captivating, the hurried resolution is disappointing. The powerful messaging around the importance of literature and imagination certainly resonates, however. The main characters present white.
A successful call for creating and imagining, even if the story itself falls short. (Dystopian. 9-12)Pub Date: Sept. 29, 2026
ISBN: 9780063515109
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Clarion/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 6, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2026
Charming, poignant, and thoughtfully woven.
An aspiring scientist and a budding artist become friends and help each other with dream projects.
Unfolding in mid-1980s Sacramento, California, this story stars 12-year-olds Rosalind and Benjamin as first-person narrators in alternating chapters. Ro’s father, a fellow space buff, was killed by a drunk driver; the rocket they were working on together lies unfinished in her closet. As for Benji, not only has his best friend, Amir, moved away, but the comic book holding the clue for locating his dad is also missing. Along with their profound personal losses, the protagonists share a fixation with the universe’s intriguing potential: Ro decides to complete the rocket and hopes to launch mementos of her father into outer space while Benji’s conviction that aliens and UFOs are real compels his imagination and creativity as an artist. An accident in science class triggers a chain of events forcing Benji and Ro, who is new to the school, to interact and unintentionally learn each other’s secrets. They resolve to find Benji’s dad—a famous comic-book artist—and partner to finish Ro’s rocket for the science fair. Together, they overcome technical, scheduling, and geographical challenges. Readers will be drawn in by amusing and fantastical elements in the comic book theme, high emotional stakes that arouse sympathy, and well-drawn character development as the protagonists navigate life lessons around grief, patience, self-advocacy, and standing up for others. Ro is biracial (Chinese/White); Benji is White.
Charming, poignant, and thoughtfully woven. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Jan. 12, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-06-300888-5
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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