Readers will commiserate and root for this story’s sympathetic protagonist.
Eleven-year-old Nolie struggles to cope with changes in her life.
Her older sister, Linden, is consumed with her starring role as Marie in a Lincoln Center performance of The Nutcracker. Nolie’s parents and even her beloved Grandma cater to Linden’s demands, affecting their close-knit family’s lives. Nolie’s relationship with best friend Jessa is also undergoing radical changes: Nolie has never used her given name, Magnolia, feeling it’s not quite right for a Jewish New York City girl, but Jessa now insists on using it and even gives Nolie a list of improvements for being cool and socially accepted. As incidents at school and home escalate, she begins to self-destruct, picking her skin raw and stealing objects that comfort her. The third-person narration delves deeply into Nolie’s thoughts and reactions, as readers understand events as she sees them. Because she feels inferior, with no special talents or passions, and has no idea what she’s meant to be, Nolie is often muddled, questioning outcomes but unable to act or making matters worse. She wants to ask for help but instead withdraws and lets opportunities pass. A new quirky friend provides fun and thoughtful insights, and Linden, who is dealing with hurtful antisemitism from fellow dancers, forcefully pushes Nolie to confess her thefts and make amends. Nolie’s tale is rich with references to her family’s history and Judaism. Gertler handles middle-grade angst, family dynamics, and serious issues with candor and compassion.
Readers will commiserate and root for this story’s sympathetic protagonist. (Fiction. 9-13)Pub Date: Sept. 13, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-06-302705-3
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: July 12, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
Entrancing and uplifting.
A small dog, the elderly woman who owns him, and a homeless girl come together to create a tale of serendipity.
Piper, almost 12, her parents, and her younger brother are at the bottom of a long slide toward homelessness. Finally in a family shelter, Piper finds that her newfound safety gives her the opportunity to reach out to someone who needs help even more. Jewel, mentally ill, lives in the park with her dog, Baby. Unwilling to leave her pet, and forbidden to enter the shelter with him, she struggles with the winter weather. Ree, also homeless and with a large dog, helps when she can, but after Jewel gets sick and is hospitalized, Baby’s taken to the animal shelter, and Ree can’t manage the complex issues alone. It’s Piper, using her best investigative skills, who figures out Jewel’s backstory. Still, she needs all the help of the shelter Firefly Girls troop that she joins to achieve her accomplishment: to raise enough money to provide Jewel and Baby with a secure, hopeful future and, maybe, with their kindness, to inspire a happier story for Ree. Told in the authentic alternating voices of loving child and loyal dog, this tale could easily slump into a syrupy melodrama, but Pyron lets her well-drawn characters earn their believable happy ending, step by challenging step, by reaching out and working together. Piper, her family, and Jewel present white; Pyron uses hair and naming convention, respectively, to cue Ree as black and Piper’s friend Gabriela as Latinx.
Entrancing and uplifting. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Aug. 13, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-06-283922-0
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: April 9, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2019
A worthy combination of athletic action, the virtues of inner strength, and the importance of friendship.
A young tennis champion becomes the target of revenge.
In this sequel to Legacy and the Queen (2019), Legacy Petrin and her friends Javi and Pippa have returned to Legacy’s home province and the orphanage run by her father. With her friends’ help, she is in training to defend her championship when they discover that another player, operating under the protection of High Consul Silla, is presenting herself as Legacy. She is so convincing that the real Legacy is accused of being an imitation. False Legacy has become a hero to the masses, further strengthening Silla’s hold, and it becomes imperative to uncover and defeat her. If Legacy is to win again, she must play her imposter while disguised as someone else. Winning at tennis is not just about money and fame, but resisting Silla’s plans to send more young people into brutal mines with little hope of better lives. Legacy will have to overcome her fears and find the magic that allowed her to claim victory in the past. This story, with its elements of sports, fantasy, and social consciousness that highlight tensions between the powerful and those they prey upon, successfully continues the series conceived by late basketball superstar Bryant. As before, the tennis matches are depicted with pace and spirit. Legacy and Javi have brown skin; most other characters default to White.
A worthy combination of athletic action, the virtues of inner strength, and the importance of friendship. (Fantasy. 9-12)Pub Date: Aug. 24, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-949520-19-4
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Granity Studios
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
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