A timely, feel-good tale of learning to accept oneself and others.
Junior high students reinvent themselves when they attend virtual school.
Amid a pandemic (Covid-19 is implied), three alternating narrators enroll in Balderstein Virtual Junior High. But this year, remote learning packs a twist: Students attend classes via virtual reality and interact with one another by creating avatars…or disguises. Bradley Horvath is fat and, thanks to bullies, has had trouble making friends. But as pink-haired K-pop fan Daebak, maybe he’ll impress his classmates with his cool dance moves. Lacrosse star Hunter Athanasopoulos appears as himself—but his long-haired blond avatar and competitive attitude hide his worries about losing his hair to alopecia. Edelle Dahan-Miller was a popular trendsetter at school thanks to social media, but her mother insists she present herself sans filters after learning of a misogynistic student website that ranked girls’ appearances. Now unrecognizable and calling herself Vanya, who is Edelle without her friends’ admiration? When a gaming tournament forces the trio to work together, they make surprising discoveries about themselves and each other. Though the ending is somewhat pat and the characters somewhat two-dimensional, the protagonists’ evolving views of friendship and self-acceptance will resonate with readers who struggle to be—or to find—themselves. Warmly supportive parents are a welcome bonus. Edelle is Palestinian and assumed White; Hunter’s surname suggests Greek heritage; and Bradley is cued White. Secondary characters are racially diverse; one has cystic fibrosis. Illustrations not seen.
A timely, feel-good tale of learning to accept oneself and others. (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Feb. 7, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-63993-053-1
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Shadow Mountain
Review Posted Online: Nov. 15, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A successful call for creating and imagining, even if the story itself falls short.
In the dystopian, totalitarian world of 2099, 14-year-old Tessa and her family are desperate to solve the mystery of her twin brother Theo’s disappearance.
Tessa is growing up in a time when playgrounds are historical relics, surveillance cameras are everywhere, music is outlawed, and owning books is illegal. Under the absolute rule of Zokiris, the decadeslong leader of her territory, people are heavily controlled. When Theo vanishes under mysterious circumstances and his name is erased from the Territory Statistics list, Tessa’s 135-year-old neighbor, Miriam, gives the family contraband books that become central to figuring out Theo’s whereabouts. Most books have long since been seized and stored away in Building 903; Tessa is intrigued by their presence in her home, while her mother is terrified. Lowry, the acclaimed, award-winning author of The Giver (1993), shines in her creation of uncomfortably believable dystopian societies. Tessa’s painfully limited world is fully imagined, with its own history, laws, and norms. Her relationship with her brother reads as realistic and tender and is crucial to the mystery. Miriam is the most strongly developed character: wise and independent, unafraid and hopeful. While the climb to the book’s climax is captivating, the hurried resolution is disappointing. The powerful messaging around the importance of literature and imagination certainly resonates, however. The main characters present white.
A successful call for creating and imagining, even if the story itself falls short. (Dystopian. 9-12)Pub Date: Sept. 29, 2026
ISBN: 9780063515109
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Clarion/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 6, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2026
The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often...
A successful juvenile by the beloved New Yorker writer portrays a farm episode with an imaginative twist that makes a poignant, humorous story of a pig, a spider and a little girl.
Young Fern Arable pleads for the life of runt piglet Wilbur and gets her father to sell him to a neighbor, Mr. Zuckerman. Daily, Fern visits the Zuckermans to sit and muse with Wilbur and with the clever pen spider Charlotte, who befriends him when he is lonely and downcast. At the news of Wilbur's forthcoming slaughter, campaigning Charlotte, to the astonishment of people for miles around, spins words in her web. "Some Pig" comes first. Then "Terrific"—then "Radiant". The last word, when Wilbur is about to win a show prize and Charlotte is about to die from building her egg sac, is "Humble". And as the wonderful Charlotte does die, the sadness is tempered by the promise of more spiders next spring.
The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often informative as amusing, and the whole tenor of appealing wit and pathos will make fine entertainment for reading aloud, too.Pub Date: Oct. 15, 1952
ISBN: 978-0-06-026385-0
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1952
PERSPECTIVES
SEEN & HEARD
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