A beautiful, moving debut for sophisticated readers.
“Listen to what the ocean was tryin’ to tell ya today. Learn from it.”
With his father in prison and his family unable to pay the rent, 12-year-old Matthew and his mother relocate to the small Australian town of Crawley Point to fix up the beachside cottage his late grandfather had dreamed of retiring to; selling it will bring much-needed cash. When the surfing-obsessed local teens prove unwelcoming, Matthew, who’s cued white, finds companionship with Bill, an old Indigenous fisherman who takes Matthew under his wing, dubbing him a “saltwater boy.” As he gains in confidence, his angry, jealous father, who’s been released on parole, shows up, upending the family’s stability and threatening his friendship with Bill. The story is set in 1992; references to a landmark Indigenous land rights case, Mabo v. Queensland, offer parallels to U.S. history. There’s a heartbreaking authenticity to Matthew’s first-person narration. The incidents of domestic violence, including the verbal and physical abuse and gaslighting he experiences, are intense and unflinching. When Matthew raises justifiable concerns, his mother, frustratingly, makes excuses for his father: “He’s dealing with a lot at the moment. We’ve got to stick by him. That’s what families do.” The redemption arc of the father-son dynamic relies heavily on the aftereffects of external events, eschewing more serious consequences or internal character growth and inviting readers to unpack complex issues. Australian slang adds to the sense of place.
A beautiful, moving debut for sophisticated readers. (Fiction. 13-18)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2024
ISBN: 9781760659400
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Walker Books Australia
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2024
PERSPECTIVES
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Riveting, brutal and beautifully told.
A devastating tale of greed and secrets springs from the summer that tore Cady’s life apart.
Cady Sinclair’s family uses its inherited wealth to ensure that each successive generation is blond, beautiful and powerful. Reunited each summer by the family patriarch on his private island, his three adult daughters and various grandchildren lead charmed, fairy-tale lives (an idea reinforced by the periodic inclusions of Cady’s reworkings of fairy tales to tell the Sinclair family story). But this is no sanitized, modern Disney fairy tale; this is Cinderella with her stepsisters’ slashed heels in bloody glass slippers. Cady’s fairy-tale retellings are dark, as is the personal tragedy that has led to her examination of the skeletons in the Sinclair castle’s closets; its rent turns out to be extracted in personal sacrifices. Brilliantly, Lockhart resists simply crucifying the Sinclairs, which might make the family’s foreshadowed tragedy predictable or even satisfying. Instead, she humanizes them (and their painful contradictions) by including nostalgic images that showcase the love shared among Cady, her two cousins closest in age, and Gat, the Heathcliff-esque figure she has always loved. Though increasingly disenchanted with the Sinclair legacy of self-absorption, the four believe family redemption is possible—if they have the courage to act. Their sincere hopes and foolish naïveté make the teens’ desperate, grand gesture all that much more tragic.
Riveting, brutal and beautifully told. (Fiction. 14 & up)Pub Date: May 13, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-385-74126-2
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: March 16, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2014
PROFILES
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
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