by Christine Kendall ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 11, 2016
A worthwhile first outing; Kendall shows promise.
A troubled inner-city boy learns to play polo in a program modeled after Philadelphia's famed Work to Ride.
Troy, 13, has been skipping school and “hanging out with knuckleheads” for nearly a year since his mom died. After getting caught in petty crime with his friend Foster, the boys are assigned to work at the stables in Fairmount Park. (It's implied that both are black, along with most if not all the other characters, but skin color is rarely explicitly assigned.) Troy feels drawn to the horses, especially a polo mare named Chance; after putting in time mucking stalls, he gradually begins to learn to ride and ultimately joins the barn's polo team. Troy, who lives with his father and grandmother, has to deal with both the complexities of his family life and the enduring enmity of some of the other boys—the knuckleheads he's outgrown. In her debut novel, Kendall does a good job capturing Troy's voice but falters a bit in her descriptions of the horses and, especially, what it's like to play polo. Her story is strong in setting and begins well, but the plot falters midway, the story progressing without much at stake until the melodramatic end. Still, it's good to read a horse story with an inner-city black protagonist at home in a black environment.
A worthwhile first outing; Kendall shows promise. (Fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Oct. 11, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-545-92404-7
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: July 1, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2016
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by Sarah Arthur ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 30, 2024
Evocations of Narnia are not enough to salvage this fantasy, which struggles with thin character development.
A portal fantasy survivor story from an established devotional writer.
Fourteen-year-old Eva’s maternal grandmother lives on a grand estate in England; Eva and her academic parents live in New Haven, Connecticut. When she and Mum finally visit Carrick Hall, Eva is alternately resentful at what she’s missed and overjoyed to connect with sometimes aloof Grandmother. Alongside questions of Eva’s family history, the summer is permeated by a greater mystery surrounding the work of fictional children’s fantasy writer A.H.W. Clifton, who wrote a Narnialike series that Eva adores. As it happens, Grandmother was one of several children who entered and ruled Ternival, the world of Clifton’s books; the others perished in 1952, and Grandmother hasn’t recovered. The Narnia influences are strong—Eva’s grandmother is the Susan figure who’s repudiated both magic and God—and the ensuing trauma has created rifts that echo through her relationships with her daughter and granddaughter. An early narrative implication that Eva will visit Ternival to set things right barely materializes in this series opener; meanwhile, the religious parable overwhelms the magic elements as the story winds on. The serviceable plot is weakened by shallow characterization. Little backstory appears other than that which immediately concerns the plot, and Eva tends to respond emotionally as the story requires—resentful when her seething silence is required, immediately trusting toward characters readers need to trust. Major characters are cued white.
Evocations of Narnia are not enough to salvage this fantasy, which struggles with thin character development. (author’s note, map, author Q&A) (Religious fantasy. 12-14)Pub Date: Jan. 30, 2024
ISBN: 9780593194454
Page Count: 384
Publisher: WaterBrook
Review Posted Online: Oct. 21, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2023
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by Mitali Perkins ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 1, 2010
Well-educated American boys from privileged families have abundant options for college and career. For Chiko, their Burmese counterpart, there are no good choices. There is never enough to eat, and his family lives in constant fear of the military regime that has imprisoned Chiko’s physician father. Soon Chiko is commandeered by the army, trained to hunt down members of the Karenni ethnic minority. Tai, another “recruit,” uses his streetwise survival skills to help them both survive. Meanwhile, Tu Reh, a Karenni youth whose village was torched by the Burmese Army, has been chosen for his first military mission in his people’s resistance movement. How the boys meet and what comes of it is the crux of this multi-voiced novel. While Perkins doesn’t sugarcoat her subject—coming of age in a brutal, fascistic society—this is a gentle story with a lot of heart, suitable for younger readers than the subject matter might suggest. It answers the question, “What is it like to be a child soldier?” clearly, but with hope. (author’s note, historical note) (Fiction. 11-14)
Pub Date: July 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-58089-328-2
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Charlesbridge
Review Posted Online: May 31, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2010
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by Mitali Perkins ; illustrated by Khoa Le
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by Mitali Perkins ; illustrated by Kevin Howdeshell & Kristen Howdeshell
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