A cancer story that struggles to evoke either laughter or tears
This Irish import’s 12-year-old narrator laughs to keep from crying.
Aspiring to become a professional comedian, Philip Wright enjoys entertaining his single mother and biggest fan, Kathy, while daily attempting to capture the attention of his art-class crush, “dark-haired goddess” Lucy Wells. When Kathy bursts into tears and locks herself in the bathroom after one of his jokes, Philip thinks he’s lost his touch. Prodded by her best friend, Kathy finally tells Philip that she has breast cancer that will require surgery, chemo, and radiation. Philip is initially enraged at how much this news will affect his world, never mind the impossibility of saying “breast” to his friends and teachers. When he finally faces the reality that he could lose his mom, Philip starts behaving like she matters. This novel has a rather slow beginning, with humor that feels too calculated to succeed, including an extended lisping riff, making fun of his Spanish best friend’s name (Angel, which Philip shortens to “Ang”), and the occasional reference to poo. The author also fails to explain how this family suffers no economic hardships while its only breadwinner cannot work. Nevertheless, middle-grade readers will identify with Philip’s conflicts with his best friend and his antics to win Lucy’s affections. Ang aside, the primary characters all appear to be Irish; absence of racial cues indicates that the default is white.
A cancer story that struggles to evoke either laughter or tears . (Fiction. 10-12)Pub Date: March 14, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-55451-880-7
Page Count: 170
Publisher: Annick Press
Review Posted Online: Jan. 16, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2017
In a market saturated with tales of danger and heroic teens, this one is best left at the Tube station.
Only one boy has the power to stop a dangerous cult from wreaking havoc in the city of London.
Adam leads the boring life of an average 13-year-old—hanging out with friends, going to school, and attending the occasional music festival. But then his life is turned upside down when members of a cult convinced that he must die before he reaches his 14th birthday begin to stage attacks. He manages to escape their clutches but at the same time puts everyone he cares about in danger. Cults are not yet an overdone topic in literature for teens, and a refreshing plot element is always welcome. However, these characters are too underdeveloped to present any real tension, even as lives hang in the balance. Adam's personality does not stretch beyond the thoughts and actions he needs to defend himself, and too rarely does he question the weirdness of his life, leaving him resistant to readers' sympathy. The bad guys are nearly comical in their attachment to cliché and weak threats: "People are going to get hurt if you don't get into that car right now." The easy language and simple sentences feel more appropriate for an audience younger than 12 than for teen readers.
In a market saturated with tales of danger and heroic teens, this one is best left at the Tube station. (Thriller. 10-12)Pub Date: May 15, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-8234-3294-3
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2015
A story about losing yourself in the quest to belong that gets lost in its own telling.
Fourteen-year-old Jack Sprigley is different from the rest of his eighth-grade class in one very embarrassing way: he hasn’t hit puberty.
Convinced that being “stranded on Pubeless Island” will cost him his friends, Jack, who is white, concocts a plan to literally fake it until he makes it. This includes saying and doing whatever it takes to persuade his classmates of his manliness, including seizing an opportunity to regain his popularity by appearing on a television show and presenting a new and improved Jack to the world. It’s a tangled web, and in the end, Jack doesn’t even recognize himself. Real-life puberty is awkward enough, but it’s nothing in comparison to Jack’s cringeworthy attempts to convince everyone at school that he belongs. This novel is not for the squeamish. From telling friends that he spent two weeks of school break masturbating incessantly to actually considering wearing a “merkin” made with someone else’s pubic hair, readers will need to have a high tolerance for embarrassing situations. The discomfort overshadows other elements, such as his father’s death, which might have more to do with Jack’s desire to be seen than just a lack of pubic hair. While this vicarious trip through puberty may be so extremely awkward readers’ own journeys can’t help but feel easy by comparison, it’s pretty one-note.
A story about losing yourself in the quest to belong that gets lost in its own telling. (Fiction. 10-12)Pub Date: Feb. 7, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4814-7972-1
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Nov. 22, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2016
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