by Connie Glynn ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 4, 2018
"Cinderella" meets Mean Girls while at Hogwarts.
Being a princess is all that Lottie imagined, except that someone is out to get her.
Lottie, 13, has always found solace in the classic fairy tales, and her most cherished possession is her dead mother’s tiara (a “pristine object of magnificence, so incongruous in her humble home…that appeared to glow with a glittering grandeur”). Accepted into the opulent and prestigious boarding school Rosewood Hall, Lottie is determined to succeed. She is stunned to learn that her roommate, Ellie, is an actual princess who abhors the role, and her residence at the school is supposed to be top secret. Lottie eventually takes on the part of Portman, one hired to act in place of a member of royalty to protect their true identity. It’s a dream come true, with fancy dresses, royal balls, and a handsome prince—but it’s also fraught with danger. A toxic sigil is hidden under her bed, and threatening notes begin appearing in places like cupcake frosting. Lottie might be lost as events proceed into very treacherous territory but for her wits, a little help from the mysterious bodyguard Jamie (a “dark” and “wild” multiracial boy whose Pakistani mother died in childbirth, making him one of the few characters of color), and her deep friendship with Ellie. Lottie and Ellie are both white. YouTube personality Glynn takes this wish-fulfillment premise and spins it with all the subtlety of cotton candy—lit’rature this is not.
"Cinderella" meets Mean Girls while at Hogwarts. (Fiction. 9-14)Pub Date: Sept. 4, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-06-284780-5
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: June 10, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2018
Share your opinion of this book
by Katherine Marsh ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 7, 2018
A captivating book situated in present-day discourse around the refugee crisis, featuring two boys who stand by their high...
Two parallel stories, one of a Syrian boy from Aleppo fleeing war, and another of a white American boy, son of a NATO contractor, dealing with the challenges of growing up, intersect at a house in Brussels.
Ahmed lost his father while crossing the Mediterranean. Alone and broke in Europe, he takes things into his own hands to get to safety but ends up having to hide in the basement of a residential house. After months of hiding, he is discovered by Max, a boy of similar age and parallel high integrity and courage, who is experiencing his own set of troubles learning a new language, moving to a new country, and being teased at school. In an unexpected turn of events, the two boys and their new friends Farah, a Muslim Belgian girl, and Oscar, a white Belgian boy, successfully scheme for Ahmed to go to school while he remains in hiding the rest of the time. What is at stake for Ahmed is immense, and so is the risk to everyone involved. Marsh invites art and history to motivate her protagonists, drawing parallels to gentiles who protected Jews fleeing Nazi terror and citing present-day political news. This well-crafted and suspenseful novel touches on the topics of refugees and immigrant integration, terrorism, Islam, Islamophobia, and the Syrian war with sensitivity and grace.
A captivating book situated in present-day discourse around the refugee crisis, featuring two boys who stand by their high values in the face of grave risk and succeed in drawing goodwill from others. (Historical fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Aug. 7, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-250-30757-6
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: June 10, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2018
Share your opinion of this book
More by Katherine Marsh
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
by Katherine Marsh ; illustrated by Kelly Murphy
by Gordon Korman ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 30, 2017
Korman’s trademark humor makes this an appealing read.
Will a bully always be a bully?
That’s the question eighth-grade football captain Chase Ambrose has to answer for himself after a fall from his roof leaves him with no memory of who and what he was. When he returns to Hiawassee Middle School, everything and everyone is new. The football players can hardly wait for him to come back to lead the team. Two, Bear Bratsky and Aaron Hakimian, seem to be special friends, but he’s not sure what they share. Other classmates seem fearful; he doesn’t know why. Temporarily barred from football because of his concussion, he finds a new home in the video club and, over time, develops a new reputation. He shoots videos with former bullying target Brendan Espinoza and even with Shoshanna Weber, who’d hated him passionately for persecuting her twin brother, Joel. Chase voluntarily continues visiting the nursing home where he’d been ordered to do community service before his fall, making a special friend of a decorated Korean War veteran. As his memories slowly return and he begins to piece together his former life, he’s appalled. His crimes were worse than bullying. Will he become that kind of person again? Set in the present day and told in the alternating voices of Chase and several classmates, this finding-your-middle-school-identity story explores provocative territory. Aside from naming conventions, the book subscribes to the white default.
Korman’s trademark humor makes this an appealing read. (Fiction. 9-14)Pub Date: May 30, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-338-05377-7
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: March 19, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2017
Share your opinion of this book
More by Gordon Korman
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Hey there, book lover.
We’re glad you found a book that interests you!
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Don’t fret. We’ll find you.