This convincing, upbeat tale of adolescence champions growth and self-reliance.
A girl gains confidence through her love of music in DaVeiga’s middle-grade novella and series launch.
Orion Casey lives for music, but she won’t sing in public. She developed a phobia after her frenemy, Melissa Rae, and her minions openly mocked Orion’s singing voice. So while Melissa Rae takes the spotlight in their school’s musical production, Orion is just fine working backstage. Her self-esteem gets a welcome boost from an unlikely source: anonymous text messages signed J. They’re complimentary and encouraging: “You are strong! You are fearless! And super talented.” Orion can’t help but think (and hope) that those texts are from Jesse, the guy she’s crushing on. He always says hello, and he’s even given her the nickname Red, after her fire-emoji-hued hair. Best of all, he sings and plays guitar, just like Orion. She’s overjoyed when she gets the chance to play music with Jesse and considers rethinking her no-singing-in-public rule. But if Jesse isn’t J, then who’s been sending all those texts, and why? Orion’s quirky first-person narration gives DaVeiga’s book a sense of buoyancy. She notes that Melissa Rae has someone wrapped around her “press-on-nailed finger”; Orion goes through a “zillion emotions” in a matter of seconds. She’s an immensely likable protagonist, although her best friend, Izzy, nearly steals the story; Izzy is funny, fiercely loyal, and knows how to draw out a big revelation. Other characters show depth as well—Orion’s and Izzy’s families share history, and Jesse eventually drops some particulars about his “mysterious past.” The author deftly portrays the world of middle school, with potential bullies, hallway interactions, and social media providing much fuel for the story. The one downside to this novella is that it’s over too soon; thankfully, sequels will follow.
This convincing, upbeat tale of adolescence champions growth and self-reliance.Pub Date: May 13, 2026
ISBN: 9781958050262
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Waterhole Productions LLC
Review Posted Online: March 18, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Good Guys and Bad get just deserts in the end, and Stanley gets plenty of opportunities to display pluck and valor in this...
Sentenced to a brutal juvenile detention camp for a crime he didn't commit, a wimpy teenager turns four generations of bad family luck around in this sunburnt tale of courage, obsession, and buried treasure from Sachar (Wayside School Gets a Little Stranger, 1995, etc.).
Driven mad by the murder of her black beau, a schoolteacher turns on the once-friendly, verdant town of Green Lake, Texas, becomes feared bandit Kissin' Kate Barlow, and dies, laughing, without revealing where she buried her stash. A century of rainless years later, lake and town are memories—but, with the involuntary help of gangs of juvenile offenders, the last descendant of the last residents is still digging. Enter Stanley Yelnats IV, great-grandson of one of Kissin' Kate's victims and the latest to fall to the family curse of being in the wrong place at the wrong time; under the direction of The Warden, a woman with rattlesnake venom polish on her long nails, Stanley and each of his fellow inmates dig a hole a day in the rock-hard lake bed. Weeks of punishing labor later, Stanley digs up a clue, but is canny enough to conceal the information of which hole it came from. Through flashbacks, Sachar weaves a complex net of hidden relationships and well-timed revelations as he puts his slightly larger-than-life characters under a sun so punishing that readers will be reaching for water bottles.
Good Guys and Bad get just deserts in the end, and Stanley gets plenty of opportunities to display pluck and valor in this rugged, engrossing adventure. (Fiction. 9-13)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1998
ISBN: 978-0-374-33265-5
Page Count: 233
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2000
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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BOOK TO SCREEN
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic.
Chainani works an elaborate sea change akin to Gregory Maguire’s Wicked (1995), though he leaves the waters muddied.
Every four years, two children, one regarded as particularly nice and the other particularly nasty, are snatched from the village of Gavaldon by the shadowy School Master to attend the divided titular school. Those who survive to graduate become major or minor characters in fairy tales. When it happens to sweet, Disney princess–like Sophie and her friend Agatha, plain of features, sour of disposition and low of self-esteem, they are both horrified to discover that they’ve been dropped not where they expect but at Evil and at Good respectively. Gradually—too gradually, as the author strings out hundreds of pages of Hogwarts-style pranks, classroom mishaps and competitions both academic and romantic—it becomes clear that the placement wasn’t a mistake at all. Growing into their true natures amid revelations and marked physical changes, the two spark escalating rivalry between the wings of the school. This leads up to a vicious climactic fight that sees Good and Evil repeatedly switching sides. At this point, readers are likely to feel suddenly left behind, as, thanks to summary deus ex machina resolutions, everything turns out swell(ish).
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic. (Fantasy. 11-13)Pub Date: May 14, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-06-210489-2
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2013
BOOK TO SCREEN
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