A superlative, culturally relevant coming-of-age story.
Award-winning middle-grade author Young (Diné) makes his YA debut with this story set at a prestigious boarding school.
Fifteen-year-old Derrick Hoskie is moving from New Mexico to Connecticut’s Sagefield Academy, leaving behind everything he’s ever known, including his best friends and his extensive multigenerational family. In this classic fish-out-of-water tale, Derrick needs to figure out how to balance his old and new lives. Off the Navajo reservation, he’s suddenly become a minority, thrust into the spotlight and facing questions and comments from people that are based on stereotypes; Indigenous readers will recognize the fatigue of having to educate others. As a scholarship kid and competitive wrestler, Derrick feels pressure to perform in both the athletic and scholastic realms. Encouraged by his Sagefield history teacher, he becomes interested in recording his great-grandmother Másání Mildred’s Indian boarding school stories before she passes, but she has no intention of talking about those experiences. His assignments are piling up—and he sees that his classmates have found other ways to work the system, such as cheating or abusing ADHD medication. Derrick is a realistic teenager who makes good and bad decisions and has to deal with the consequences. The story, with its well-drawn school setting, has strong pacing that will keep readers engaged. Young’s author’s note describes his own time as a New England boarding school student dealing with culture shock.
A superlative, culturally relevant coming-of-age story. (glossary, note from Cynthia Leitich Smith) (Fiction. 13-18)Pub Date: May 5, 2026
ISBN: 9780063229082
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Heartdrum
Review Posted Online: Feb. 16, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
This grittily provocative debut explores the horrors of self-harm and the healing power of artistic expression.
After surviving a suicide attempt, a fragile teen isn't sure she can endure without cutting herself.
Seventeen-year-old Charlie Davis, a white girl living on the margins, thinks she has little reason to live: her father drowned himself; her bereft and abusive mother kicked her out; her best friend, Ellis, is nearly brain dead after cutting too deeply; and she's gone through unspeakable experiences living on the street. After spending time in treatment with other young women like her—who cut, burn, poke, and otherwise hurt themselves—Charlie is released and takes a bus from the Twin Cities to Tucson to be closer to Mikey, a boy she "like-likes" but who had pined for Ellis instead. But things don't go as planned in the Arizona desert, because sweet Mikey just wants to be friends. Feeling rejected, Charlie, an artist, is drawn into a destructive new relationship with her sexy older co-worker, a "semifamous" local musician who's obviously a junkie alcoholic. Through intense, diarylike chapters chronicling Charlie's journey, the author captures the brutal and heartbreaking way "girls who write their pain on their bodies" scar and mar themselves, either succumbing or surviving. Like most issue books, this is not an easy read, but it's poignant and transcendent as Charlie breaks more and more before piecing herself back together.
This grittily provocative debut explores the horrors of self-harm and the healing power of artistic expression. (author’s note) (Fiction. 14 & up)Pub Date: Aug. 30, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-101-93471-5
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2016
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