A busy novel about the importance of compassion and learning to be true to one’s heart, with an endearing protagonist at its...
A chatty fourth-grader named DeeDee is eager to make friends at her new school, but first she must learn what loyalty means.
Bombarded by problems at home, DeeDee encounters more stress in one year than many people confront in a lifetime. Her trailer burns down, which means her family must move again. Her father has left to visit a relative in Mexico and hasn’t come back. She is behind in her school work and struggles to keep up with the help of a special teacher. Watched by older siblings while her mother struggles to earn a living, she eats too much junk food and develops diabetes. Readers will cheer for DeeDee even as she makes bad choices that reveal poor self-esteem: She denies being bilingual, acts embarrassed by a close friend with disabilities, and caves in to bullies because she wants to be part of the popular crowd. DeeDee disappoints herself and must seek encouragement to do what she knows is right, modeling growth. The novel is filled with important issues involving immigration and acceptance of those who are different, though DeeDee’s cheeky narrative voice (“Holy jalapeño”) provides a great deal of levity. Commendably, Belford isn’t afraid to show the cruelty and confusion children evince when their lives are not going as planned.
A busy novel about the importance of compassion and learning to be true to one’s heart, with an endearing protagonist at its core . (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Nov. 6, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5107-2406-8
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Sky Pony Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 16, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
A bouquet of quirks, whimsy, sweetness, and magic.
A girl awaiting her destiny must uncover lost treasure to save her home.
Orphan Emma lives above the Boneyard Cafe, her family’s business, right next to the cemetery. She comes from a long line of Wildflowers: the women in her family each experience a Destiny Dream, a specific dream that steers them to extraordinary lives. When it looks as though Emma’s grandmother (Granny Blue, a tattooed retired boxer) will be forced to sell their home, Emma looks for answers in a graveyard legend. The Conductor, a Civil War–era ghost, is said to have left treasure in Blackbird Hollow. With the help of Cody Belle, her trusty best friend, and Earl Chance, a boy newly returned to town and traumatized into muteness after a close encounter with a tornado, and guidance from her own less-than-clear Destiny Dream, Emma uses town lore to hunt for the treasure. Despite ghosts and graves, the story avoids the macabre and instead focuses on the relationships among memory, sadness, and joy, especially as Emma’s still recovering from her mother’s death. The mystery’s as much fun as a treasure hunt should be, and the clues are augmented by magical flowers. Blackbird Hollow is as largely white as might be expected of an Appalachian holler, but the story avoids twee with such details as Granny Blue’s Harley and Emma’s fondness for rock-’n’-roll.
A bouquet of quirks, whimsy, sweetness, and magic. (Fantasy. 8-12)Pub Date: Feb. 23, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-545-55274-5
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2016
Strong characters grapple with a multitude of issues (a few too many) in this celebration of friendship and the rewards of...
Are there secrets that shouldn’t be revealed?
In this sequel to The Perfect Score (2017), Randi, Natalie, Gavin, Trevor, and Scott are assigned community service for cheating on a standardized test. It’s not really a punishment, as these good-natured students enjoy working in the senior center where they’ve established relationships, and besides, they want to reconcile two of their teachers, a mother and daughter, before it’s too late. As before, narration alternates among the five, and while their characters are well-developed, the various issues are examined lightly. In this case, many are related to secrecy, from budding romance to absentee fathers, familial estrangement, parental marital problems, financial struggle, Alzheimer’s, brain injury, adult illiteracy, immigration, and racism. The last three revolve around Gavin, whose Mexican-immigrant mother is undocumented and who becomes the target of the racist football coach. Aside from biracial Gavin and his mother, the book adheres to the white default. Though handled with kindness and compassion, the sheer abundance of topics results in oversimplification, and every story has a pat ending, which, cumulatively, seems unlikely. Still, the characters shine, the plots are engaging, and the issues are addressed in interesting ways that will provide readers with many perspectives and much to consider.
Strong characters grapple with a multitude of issues (a few too many) in this celebration of friendship and the rewards of volunteer work. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Oct. 9, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5247-6459-3
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: July 15, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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