A good-hearted road trip stalls on thin secondary characterizations.
Ever since the accident that killed her mother and two sisters five years ago, Coyote Sunrise, now 12, and her father, Rodeo, have lived on the road in a converted yellow school bus and followed their whims.
The only place they will not go is back to their hometown…until Coyote’s grandma tells her the park where she, her mother, and her sisters buried a memory box is slated for destruction in just a few days. Now she must figure out how to steer her father back. In true road-trip–novel fashion, Coyote manages with the help of strangers: Lester, a jilted musician; Salvador and his mother, fleeing domestic abuse; and teenage Val, kicked out because she’s gay. Gemeinhart crafts an enormously appealing protagonist in Coyote, who has mostly adapted to her unusual life but whose yearning for stability pokes out in small ways. Her narrative voice is rich and memorable, her withering distaste for Wild Watermelon slushes just one of many personality-defining quirks. But if Coyote is a living, breathing protagonist, the secondary cast is less so. That Coyote and her father are white makes Coyote’s enlistment of Lester, an endlessly amiable black man, as a second driver an uncomfortable choice—a literal plot device, in fact. Latinx Salvador is more fully drawn, perhaps because he and Coyote interact as peers, but his mother is not. Like Lester, she and Val (who is white) fade into the background till needed.
A good-hearted road trip stalls on thin secondary characterizations. (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Jan. 8, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-19670-5
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Nov. 25, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2018
An authentically middle school voice and diverse Latinx cast make this book a standout
A worthy successor to Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret set in present-day Oakland.
Eleven-year-old Celi, mixed black–Puerto Rican–Mexican, dreads the imminent arrival of her period, less because of the menstruation itself and more because her mother insists that Celi have a “moon ceremony,” in which the members of her mother’s “women’s circle” will mark the transition from childhood to womanhood. Meanwhile, her best friend is going through a different transition—from girl to xochihuah, “neither / female nor male but both.” While Celi is initially shocked by the adjustment, she loves Mar, as her best friend now prefers to be known, no less. But when other kids, including her crush, Iván, say cruel things about Mar, Celi is torn between the possibility of a first kiss and loyalty to her friend. Salazar’s verse novel is sensitive and fresh, featuring modern interpretations of pre-Columbian coming-of-age traditions that arise organically from the characters. Mar’s heritage is Mexican, and Iván is mixed, black and Mexican; Celi and Mar’s participation in a Puerto Rican performance group and their mothers’ shared, deeply felt Xicana identity allow Salazar to naturally explore cultural nuances not often seen in middle-grade fiction. Genderfluid Mar takes both that name and the masculine pronoun midway through the book, and Celi’s narration adjusts accordingly even if some of their peers’ attitudes do not.
An authentically middle school voice and diverse Latinx cast make this book a standout . (Verse fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Feb. 26, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-338-28337-2
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Levine/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Oct. 14, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2018
PROFILES
This successful sequel offers relatable heroes for a new generation.
Ava and her friends return for another year at their magical school.
After narrowly avoiding expulsion during her first year and discovering her link to the goddess Medusa, eighth grader Ava Baldwin returns to Accademia del Forte, a boarding school in Venice for kids who are descended from mythological monsters. Though she’s eager to reunite with her friends, Ava is committed to her new mission: challenging the lies that the Olympian gods have told to keep themselves in power and conceal their misdeeds. Instead, however, Ava finds herself consumed with jealousy over her friend Layla’s newfound beauty, popularity, and boyfriend. Her efforts are further interrupted by bullies like Cyclops descendant Zale, as well as the new headmaster, demigod Perseus, who infuses the school with toxic hero worship. Disaster strikes when Layla, like many girls and women before her, is punished by the gods for her beauty and confidence. Committed vegan Layla is transformed into a bloodthirsty Empusa and must choose between compromising her morals or starving to death; can Ava and her friends save her before it’s too late? As in the series opener, this second installment skillfully weaves familiar mythology with coming-of-age concerns, all filtered through a feminist lens. Full of humor, adventure, and heart, this story, with its diverse cast of international characters, will delight readers.
This successful sequel offers relatable heroes for a new generation. (map) (Fantasy. 8-12)Pub Date: April 22, 2025
ISBN: 9780063303799
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Storytide/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: March 8, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2025
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