This format, which rarely devotes more than a few pages to any particular character or topic, results in a novel that skims,...
Told with second-person narration, Clark’s sequel to Maybe Tonight? (2013) returns “you” to your elite boarding school for your sophomore year of high school, as before ending chapters with Choose Your Own Adventure–style scenarios.
This type of “interactive” story often engages readers by forcing them to choose between two unfamiliar physical hazards for survival. The strangeness of the choices is often combined with threats of physical injury, creating tension as readers must debate about which option increases their survival odds. This effort also attempts to engage readers by requiring them to make similar choices to manipulate the plot. But unlike the physical challenges of many Choose Your Own Adventure stories, this novel tends to provide moral dilemmas that too often have a clearly “right” and “wrong” answer. Flirting with a married employer, riding with a drunk driver and abusing prescription medications can only realistically lead to negative consequences. By contrast, assisting a bullying victim and revealing a coach’s willingness to overlook student athletes’ unhealthy behaviors can only be rewarded. Though some readers will enjoy exploring various scenarios, others will quickly find the predictable results tiresome.
This format, which rarely devotes more than a few pages to any particular character or topic, results in a novel that skims, rather than explores, the pressures many high school students face daily. (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: April 15, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-59643-817-0
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 18, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2014
There’s not much plot here, but readers will relish the opportunity to climb inside Autumn’s head.
The finely drawn characters capture readers’ attention in this debut.
Autumn and Phineas, nicknamed Finny, were born a week apart; their mothers are still best friends. Growing up, Autumn and Finny were like peas in a pod despite their differences: Autumn is “quirky and odd,” while Finny is “sweet and shy and everyone like[s] him.” But in eighth grade, Autumn and Finny stop being friends due to an unexpected kiss. They drift apart and find new friends, but their friendship keeps asserting itself at parties, shared holiday gatherings and random encounters. In the summer after graduation, Autumn and Finny reconnect and are finally ready to be more than friends. But on August 8, everything changes, and Autumn has to rely on all her strength to move on. Autumn’s coming-of-age is sensitively chronicled, with a wide range of experiences and events shaping her character. Even secondary characters are well-rounded, with their own histories and motivations.
There’s not much plot here, but readers will relish the opportunity to climb inside Autumn’s head. (Fiction. 14 & up)Pub Date: April 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4022-7782-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
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
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