Alas, fails to shed light on the all-too-common issue of bullying and its impact on the emotional lives of teens.
Three teens blackmailed into bullying behaviors team up to discover who’s behind it.
Eric has been receiving anonymous calls from someone who blackmails him into playing a series of pranks on a boy at school that he doesn’t even know. At the end of a community course for accused bullies, he discovers that two other teens, Shelly and Fatima, have gotten similar calls from the creepy, computerized voice of an anonymous caller who threatens to reveal their secrets. In Eric’s case, it’s an incriminating photograph of his ex-girlfriend that will be posted to the Internet unless he keeps quiet and does what he’s told. The kids have only a few days to discover who’s behind the blackmailing before a countdown ends, forcing them into one last act of bullying. The complex reasons that Eric, Shelly and Fatima have for keeping their secrets are understandable and drive the action, but the blackmailer’s motivation is far less interesting. The unraveling of the mystery is moderately suspenseful, but readers are likely to move from “what could be going on?” to “is that all?” as the intrigue devolves into a tepid denouement.
Alas, fails to shed light on the all-too-common issue of bullying and its impact on the emotional lives of teens. (Mystery. 12-15)Pub Date: April 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-544-23950-0
Page Count: 288
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: Jan. 14, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2014
Characters to love, quips to snort at, insights to ponder: typical Spinelli.
For two teenagers, a small town’s annual cautionary ritual becomes both a life- and a death-changing experience.
On the second Wednesday in June, every eighth grader in Amber Springs, Pennsylvania, gets a black shirt, the name and picture of a teen killed the previous year through reckless behavior—and the silent treatment from everyone in town. Like many of his classmates, shy, self-conscious Robbie “Worm” Tarnauer has been looking forward to Dead Wed as a day for cutting loose rather than sober reflection…until he finds himself talking to a strange girl or, as she would have it, “spectral maiden,” only he can see or touch. Becca Finch is as surprised and confused as Worm, only remembering losing control of her car on an icy slope that past Christmas Eve. But being (or having been, anyway) a more outgoing sort, she sees their encounter as a sign that she’s got a mission. What follows, in a long conversational ramble through town and beyond, is a day at once ordinary yet rich in discovery and self-discovery—not just for Worm, but for Becca too, with a climactic twist that leaves both ready, or readier, for whatever may come next. Spinelli shines at setting a tongue-in-cheek tone for a tale with serious underpinnings, and as in Stargirl (2000), readers will be swept into the relationship that develops between this adolescent odd couple. Characters follow a White default.
Characters to love, quips to snort at, insights to ponder: typical Spinelli. (Fiction. 12-15)Pub Date: Aug. 3, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-30667-3
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 31, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2021
Filled with plenty of volleyball action and lots of heart, too.
Tragedy leads to upheaval, but also growth and new connections, for a teen athlete from Kentucky.
Catherine Griffin has lived in the small town of Danbury for all of her 16 years, and it’s just been her and her mom—no dad in sight. So she’s left reeling when the sudden loss of her mother to a heart attack forces her to move across the country to live with Knox Carter—the father whose last name she never even knew. Cat arrives in Silver Beach, California, clinging to the one thing that provides a feeling of normality: volleyball. It seems that Silver Beach High is well equipped to fill this need in her life, but unfortunately, the sport also seems to attract the popular mean girls, and they have it out for Cat from day one. Her home life isn’t easy either, with restaurant manager Knox, who never married, working late and at times seeming to forget her existence. But she makes a new friend in quirky, artistic June Hoang, who also plays volleyball. This fun and engaging series opener has solid volleyball competition scenes, an appealing underdog plotline around beach volleyball training (Knox was a pro player), a light love interest in the form of surfer Miles, and a likeable protagonist. Most characters present white, and June is Vietnamese American.
Filled with plenty of volleyball action and lots of heart, too. (Fiction. 12-15)Pub Date: Oct. 6, 2026
ISBN: 9781464268458
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Sourcebooks Young Readers
Review Posted Online: Aug. 31, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2026
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