This inventive retelling is part of the OMG Classics series. OMG, indeed. English class may never be the same.
A Christmas Carol, the classic holiday story of Ebenezer Scrooge’s transformation from miser to mensch, is recast for a new generation with this 21st-century version told entirely in texts, Facebook posts, and chat transcripts.
The cover sets the scene with Scrooge in his nightshirt, wearing the emoji face that suggests Munch’s The Scream. He is facing Marley’s ghost, who bears a one-eyed emoji face with his tongue sticking out. A Facebook post introduces the story with the news that Marley is dead, Scrooge inherits all, and the business will be open every day, including Christmas. Scrooge communicates with all the other characters, identified in a “Who’s Who” list with their own individual emojis. The Ghost of Christmas Past is represented by a floppy disc, the Ghost of Christmas Present is a wrapped Christmas present (ha ha, get it?), and the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come is the speak-no-evil–monkey emoji. Text-speak abbreviations are used throughout the story, with a handy list of “The 411 for Those Not in the Know” appended at the end. This abridged edition of Dickens’ story includes all the elements of the plot, distilled down to basics in the short, succinct manner required with texting. The humor is often a bit like finding buried treasure, seeing connections between the characters and emojis in texts or discovering an incongruous action by Scrooge, such as blocking someone’s texts.
This inventive retelling is part of the OMG Classics series. OMG, indeed. English class may never be the same. (Graphic classic. 12 & up)Pub Date: Sept. 27, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-399-55064-5
Page Count: 112
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2016
A standing ovation.
Tackles family secrets, toxic masculinity, and socio-economic differences with incisive clarity and candor.
Camino Rios lives in the Dominican Republic and yearns to go to Columbia University in New York City, where her father works most of the year. Yahaira Rios, who lives in Morningside Heights, hasn’t spoken to her dad since the previous summer, when she found out he has another wife in the Dominican Republic. Their lives collide when this man, their dad, dies in an airplane crash with hundreds of other passengers heading to the island. Each protagonist grieves the tragic death of their larger-than-life father and tries to unravel the tangled web of lies he kept secret for almost 20 years. The author pays reverent tribute to the lives lost in a similar crash in 2001. The half sisters are vastly different—Yahaira is dark skinned, a chess champion who has a girlfriend; Camino is lighter skinned, a talented swimmer who helps her curandera aunt deliver neighborhood babies. Despite their differences, they slowly forge a tenuous bond. The book is told in alternating chapters with headings counting how many days have passed since the fateful event. Acevedo balances the two perspectives with ease, contrasting the girls’ environments and upbringings. Camino’s verses read like poetic prose, flowing and straightforward. Yahaira’s sections have more breaks and urgent, staccato beats. Every line is laced with betrayal and longing as the teens struggle with loving someone despite his imperfections.
A standing ovation. (Verse novel. 14-18)Pub Date: May 5, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-06-288276-9
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2020
This grittily provocative debut explores the horrors of self-harm and the healing power of artistic expression.
After surviving a suicide attempt, a fragile teen isn't sure she can endure without cutting herself.
Seventeen-year-old Charlie Davis, a white girl living on the margins, thinks she has little reason to live: her father drowned himself; her bereft and abusive mother kicked her out; her best friend, Ellis, is nearly brain dead after cutting too deeply; and she's gone through unspeakable experiences living on the street. After spending time in treatment with other young women like her—who cut, burn, poke, and otherwise hurt themselves—Charlie is released and takes a bus from the Twin Cities to Tucson to be closer to Mikey, a boy she "like-likes" but who had pined for Ellis instead. But things don't go as planned in the Arizona desert, because sweet Mikey just wants to be friends. Feeling rejected, Charlie, an artist, is drawn into a destructive new relationship with her sexy older co-worker, a "semifamous" local musician who's obviously a junkie alcoholic. Through intense, diarylike chapters chronicling Charlie's journey, the author captures the brutal and heartbreaking way "girls who write their pain on their bodies" scar and mar themselves, either succumbing or surviving. Like most issue books, this is not an easy read, but it's poignant and transcendent as Charlie breaks more and more before piecing herself back together.
This grittily provocative debut explores the horrors of self-harm and the healing power of artistic expression. (author’s note) (Fiction. 14 & up)Pub Date: Aug. 30, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-101-93471-5
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2016
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