Readers will find this journey back to contentment both fully believable and emotionally resonant.
This is another sad book with a dog on the cover—but it isn’t a story about a dog.
Veronica faces a couple of major challenges at the beginning of sixth grade. One is that she has chosen to attend a private, all-girls day school in New York City, where she lives with her psychiatrist parents. She hasn’t had much success socially, and Randolf doesn’t look like a promising opportunity to up her friend count—currently a total of just one, and she’s a far-from-satisfactory companion. The other problem is that she would do just about anything to become the owner of a beagle for sale at a local pet store. When a pair of popular girls begins to take a mild interest in her and her parents buy the beloved puppy, it seems that all will be well. But things quickly fall apart: The girls are manipulative and self-focused, and her puppy has a congenital disease. Veronica’s deep, unrelenting grief is vividly portrayed, along with her bumbling but kindly parents’ efforts to redirect her back to happiness. In sharp contrast to the sad themes that permeate this quiet tale, a strong vein of humor—springing mainly from Veronica’s often ironic and feisty attitude—relieves the raw suffering without undermining its power.
Readers will find this journey back to contentment both fully believable and emotionally resonant. (Fiction. 9-13)Pub Date: Oct. 14, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-374-30039-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Aug. 19, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
An accessible delivery helps this issues-driven novel go down.
Sometimes everything happens at the same time.
Gavin, Randi, Natalie, Trevor, and Scott are back following The Perfect Secret and The Perfect Score (2018, 2017), and, as previously, myriad topics of varying seriousness are addressed through the various characters’ points of view. Characters contemplate sports injuries, football strategies, and sportsmanship; having a female football coach and the accompanying sexism; maintaining friendships while experiencing budding romance; having a teacher who is pregnant; utilizing video and social media; being a target of bullying; supporting a friend; forgiving and helping someone despite their past negative behavior; having a hospitalized parent; being uninsured; overcoming racist attitudes; dealing with death and celebrating life; appreciating people without regard to their age; being assertive; helping others; achieving goals; raising money; and making a difference. This is a safe if not always realistic world, one where bad things may happen but most adults are accessible and helpful, people who misbehave tend to see the error of their ways, all are eventually open to reconciliation, difference is ultimately celebrated, and effort determines the ability to bring about positive change. While the sheer volume of issues prevents a deep dig into most of them, the characters (seemingly default white except for biracial Latinx Gavin) are appealing, and the various strands all come together in the end.
An accessible delivery helps this issues-driven novel go down. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Oct. 15, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5247-6463-0
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An engaging tale of weird science as well as a celebration of individuality.
A freaky Phenomenon leads to a mysterious memory swap.
After athletic Reef Moody’s single mom checked into the hospital a year ago with Covid-19, he went to live with the family of her best friend, Jenna Helmer. Mom’s death made the arrangement permanent. Reef’s grief is complicated by the fact that Jenna’s volatile youngest, 14-year-old Declan, has made his life miserable. Across town, studious Theo Metzinger spots a menacing rabbit, whom he nicknames Jaws, with giant teeth preparing to destroy his precious flowers…again. But his controlling, macho dad, who clearly favors Theo’s younger sister, scolds him and whisks him off to karate class so he will “toughen up.” When Reef also starts seeing Jaws, readers will be clued in that something really unusual is happening. Over time, the two 12-year-olds each acquire memories belonging to the other and begin changing, bit by disturbing bit. Discovering a shared birthday seems to validate their shared suspicion of some sort of mind swap. A thunderstorm and the help of a handful of secondary characters are key to a solution for the distressed duo. Korman packs his story with colorfully delineated characters and believable middle school set pieces. Dueling first-person narratives capture subtle character differences between Theo and Reef while staying in a convincing preteen vernacular. Main characters are cued White.
An engaging tale of weird science as well as a celebration of individuality. (Fiction. 9-13)Pub Date: July 18, 2023
ISBN: 9781338826722
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: April 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2023
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