A story of survival that is most effective when it comes to showing the power of reading.
Inspired by a true story, this young readers’ edition of a 2012 title for adults focuses on a family living in a large garbage dump on the outskirts of Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
Sang Ly, the woman at the heart of the story, says, “The clock is broken, so its time never changes.” This is a metaphor for her life in Stung Meanchey, where she sorts through the trash for recyclables and endures daily struggles. Sang Ly’s life turns a corner when she offers Sopeap Sin, “a bitter, angry woman” who collects rent from the dump’s residents for local landlords, a discarded children’s book in lieu of payment. This marks the beginning of a genuine relationship between the two, a journey through language and literature. As Sang Ly haltingly learns to read from Sopeap, she becomes determined to give her ailing son an education and starts to interpret the world through the written word. In this way, she begins to take control; for his part, her husband, Ki Lim, carries a knife to defend their family from gangs. Most powerful here is the matryoshka-doll–like format of stories within stories that highlight the power of literacy. Unfortunately, in explaining the book’s context, the author’s note prefacing the story asks readers, “What if you lived in a garbage dump?” and “Worse, what if you couldn’t read?” which has the effect of othering the protagonists.
A story of survival that is most effective when it comes to showing the power of reading. (Fiction. 9-14)Pub Date: April 5, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-62972-985-5
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Shadow Mountain
Review Posted Online: Feb. 8, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2022
Korman’s trademark humor makes this an appealing read.
Will a bully always be a bully?
That’s the question eighth-grade football captain Chase Ambrose has to answer for himself after a fall from his roof leaves him with no memory of who and what he was. When he returns to Hiawassee Middle School, everything and everyone is new. The football players can hardly wait for him to come back to lead the team. Two, Bear Bratsky and Aaron Hakimian, seem to be special friends, but he’s not sure what they share. Other classmates seem fearful; he doesn’t know why. Temporarily barred from football because of his concussion, he finds a new home in the video club and, over time, develops a new reputation. He shoots videos with former bullying target Brendan Espinoza and even with Shoshanna Weber, who’d hated him passionately for persecuting her twin brother, Joel. Chase voluntarily continues visiting the nursing home where he’d been ordered to do community service before his fall, making a special friend of a decorated Korean War veteran. As his memories slowly return and he begins to piece together his former life, he’s appalled. His crimes were worse than bullying. Will he become that kind of person again? Set in the present day and told in the alternating voices of Chase and several classmates, this finding-your-middle-school-identity story explores provocative territory. Aside from naming conventions, the book subscribes to the white default.
Korman’s trademark humor makes this an appealing read. (Fiction. 9-14)Pub Date: May 30, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-338-05377-7
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: March 19, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2017
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic.
Chainani works an elaborate sea change akin to Gregory Maguire’s Wicked (1995), though he leaves the waters muddied.
Every four years, two children, one regarded as particularly nice and the other particularly nasty, are snatched from the village of Gavaldon by the shadowy School Master to attend the divided titular school. Those who survive to graduate become major or minor characters in fairy tales. When it happens to sweet, Disney princess–like Sophie and her friend Agatha, plain of features, sour of disposition and low of self-esteem, they are both horrified to discover that they’ve been dropped not where they expect but at Evil and at Good respectively. Gradually—too gradually, as the author strings out hundreds of pages of Hogwarts-style pranks, classroom mishaps and competitions both academic and romantic—it becomes clear that the placement wasn’t a mistake at all. Growing into their true natures amid revelations and marked physical changes, the two spark escalating rivalry between the wings of the school. This leads up to a vicious climactic fight that sees Good and Evil repeatedly switching sides. At this point, readers are likely to feel suddenly left behind, as, thanks to summary deus ex machina resolutions, everything turns out swell(ish).
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic. (Fantasy. 11-13)Pub Date: May 14, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-06-210489-2
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2013
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