by Betty Culley ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 21, 2022
Compassionate and compelling.
A teen in rural Maine searches for her birth family against the wishes of her adoptive mother and the state’s legal barriers in this novel in verse.
Rynn, 16, knows her birth mother named her Scheherazade, wanted her raised on a farm, and kept her younger sister, born seven years later. Surgery cured Rynn’s cleft palate and mended the holes in her heart and back but not her aching sense of loss. Close to her gentle adoptive dad, a New York City transplant who sells his garlic at the farmers market, Rynn has stopped trying to please her unhappy adoptive mom, Leanne, whose grievances, genuine traumas (her lost pregnancies and own mother’s abandonment), and simmering resentment erupt unpredictably. Lacking Leanne’s consent, Rynn can’t access her birth records until she’s 18, but supported by friends, she finds an uncle in Arizona and Ella, her 9-year-old sister, who is in foster care nearby. Fleeing Leanne’s abusive anger, Rynn finds refuge with family friends. She opposes her parents’ efforts to adopt Ella, who has a loving bond with her foster mother. Variously scarred by past addiction, poverty, bad health, and bad luck, the well-drawn characters, mostly White, largely prove resilient and kind. An adoptee herself, Culley writes with insight and nuance about biological families and those formed in other ways. The direct, straightforward poems effectively flesh out the characterization and are accessible to reluctant readers.
Compassionate and compelling. (Verse novel. 12-18)Pub Date: June 21, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-06-315783-5
Page Count: 416
Publisher: HarperTeen
Review Posted Online: March 15, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2022
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by Rebecca Ross ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 4, 2023
Ideal for readers seeking perspectives on war, with a heavy dash of romance and touch of fantasy.
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New York Times Bestseller
A war between gods plays havoc with mortals and their everyday lives.
In a time of typewriters and steam engines, Iris Winnow awaits word from her older brother, who has enlisted on the side of Enva the Skyward goddess. Alcohol abuse led to her mother’s losing her job, and Iris has dropped out of school and found work utilizing her writing skills at the Oath Gazette. Hiding the stress of her home issues behind a brave face, Iris competes for valuable assignments that may one day earn her the coveted columnist position. Her rival for the job is handsome and wealthy Roman Kitt, whose prose entrances her so much she avoids reading his articles. At home, she writes cathartic letters to her brother, never posting them but instead placing them in her wardrobe, where they vanish overnight. One day Iris receives a reply, which, along with other events, pushes her to make dramatic life decisions. Magic plays a quiet role in this story, and readers may for a time forget there is anything supernatural going on. This is more of a wartime tale of broken families, inspired youths, and higher powers using people as pawns. It flirts with clichéd tropes but also takes some startling turns. Main characters are assumed White; same-sex marriages and gender equality at the warfront appear to be the norm in this world.
Ideal for readers seeking perspectives on war, with a heavy dash of romance and touch of fantasy. (Fantasy. 14-18)Pub Date: April 4, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-250-85743-9
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Review Posted Online: Jan. 11, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2023
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by Daniel Aleman ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 4, 2021
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
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