Incredibly reassuring and helpful for readers struggling in an ableist world.
Gwendolyn’s IEP says there’s nothing wrong with her except the 54 ways people believe she chooses to be bad.
Gwendolyn knows she shouldn’t have opened the school assessment about her behavior, but because she did, she knows there’s nothing actually wrong with her. She’s just a lazy, socially inept, defiant, whiny 11-year-old girl—not to mention the other 50 items on the report that she writes down and studies. Gwendolyn can’t ever remember her pencil, forgets her homework, lashes out violently, and she’s always, always in trouble. She feels balanced when she’s with horses, but she’s lost horse privileges ever since she had a scary, unexpected tantrum following the advice of a terrible therapist. At least she’s got Tyler, the half brother she only recently learned about. Tyler’s got a diagnosis of ADHD but still sometimes acts out despite treatment. But how come the teachers never call Tyler’s mom when he’s bad? Or the moms of any of the misbehaving boys, for that matter? Why are teachers so unhelpful and sarcastic? Gwendolyn’s mother finally gets her a good therapist, and as Dr. Nessa walks them through diagnosis, bad medication reactions, adaptation, and fighting ableism, their pain and epiphanies are gut-wrenchingly genuine. Most characters read as White; Dr. Nessa is cued as Black.
Incredibly reassuring and helpful for readers struggling in an ableist world. (Fiction. 11-13)Pub Date: Oct. 19, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-06-299663-3
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
While the slow start and trappings of finance culture will deter some readers, those who are drawn in by Lindy’s passion and...
A seventh-grader plays the stock market.
Lindy isn’t ready for her math test, and coming down with mononucleosis is one way to get out of going to school. In the month that Lindy’s home sick, her father gives her $100 to play with on his stock-trading site. Though Lindy thinks of herself as “dense at math,” she is more than able to pick up the concepts when they have a practical use. Aided by the book Buying Stock for Dummies, Lindy immerses herself in the stock market. Her rate of return on her $100 is excellent, so it’s completely safe to dip into her parents’ capital, right? But the stock market is more volatile than Lindy realizes—and so are junior high friendships. While she’s been home focusing on the NASDAQ, her friends have formed new relationships without her. Lindy’s enthusiasm is infectious but sometimes impenetrable. The mathematical and functional aspects of selling stock are explained fairly clearly, but the social aspects of finance, from CNBC to the Wall Street Journal, from television analysts to certified financial advisors, lack explication.
While the slow start and trappings of finance culture will deter some readers, those who are drawn in by Lindy’s passion and the fun math puzzles will be rewarded by a startlingly suspenseful conclusion, with far more at stake than mere classroom drama . (Fiction. 11-12)Pub Date: May 7, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4424-5255-8
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: March 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2013
Stronger on action than internal logic, but the central cast’s array of personal foibles and amusingly arbitrary...
The magically endowed kids introduced in Powerless (2009) have a second go at their power-sucking nemesis in this overstuffed, if high-voltage sequel.
Six months after leaving Herman Plunkett, aka the Shroud, buried beneath a rock slide, ungifted Daniel and his five variously powered friends, self-styled the “Supers of Noble’s Green,” are thrown into a tizzy by the arrival of Theo Plunkett. He is a wealthy, smooth-talking teenager who could well share his mad uncle’s evil tendencies. Furthermore, amid multiple subplots and other complications, hints that the old man might still be alive emerge. These range from disturbing dreams to Daniel’s horrified realization that he can steal away his friends’ powers. More worrisome yet, the Supers have suddenly come under periodic attack by mysterious killer Shades. Readers who haven’t read the opener will flounder, and those who require even weak rationales for the MacGuffins in their thrillers will come away dissatisfied by the multiplicity of unexplained elements and apparent contradictions. Overall though, Cody delivers a series of escalating physical and relational conflicts that culminate in a pulptastic climactic battle and a resolution that hints at sequels set on a much broader stage.
Stronger on action than internal logic, but the central cast’s array of personal foibles and amusingly arbitrary superpowers, along with some eerie adversaries, carry the load. (Fantasy. 11-13)Pub Date: Nov. 13, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-375-86894-8
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Aug. 14, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2012
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