This spin on a teenager’s search for identity wears thin without much substance to support it.
The results of a DNA test send a high school senior into a tailspin.
Cordelia has always felt out of place in her family of five. But when she crafts her senior class project around her ancestry and love of poetry, she never expects that the results of the DNA test she takes will shake the foundation of her identity. The test reveals that her father is not the man who raised her, triggering a myriad of questions and leading to a crisis of identity. The testing company connects her with the man who is her biological father, whom she contacts looking for answers. When he responds, she becomes increasingly fixated on getting to know him, going so far as to use a class trip as an excuse to travel from her home in Tundra Cove, Alaska, to Seattle, where he lives, so she can meet him. Told in a combination of verse, text messages, and emails, this debut stretches out a thin plot as Cordelia's expressions of emotional angst feel flat and repetitive. The communication between Cordelia and the adults in her life may strain readers’ patience and credulity. A lukewarm romance develops between Cordelia and her childhood friend–turned–troubled boy Kodiak Jones. Cordelia, who is White, often employs animal imagery to describe Kodiak, who is described as having Tlingit ancestry on his mother’s side. (An earlier version of this review misstated the hometown of the protagonist.)
This spin on a teenager’s search for identity wears thin without much substance to support it. (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: Oct. 13, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-06-295440-4
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
An ode to the children of migrants who have been taken away.
A Mexican American boy takes on heavy responsibilities when his family is torn apart.
Mateo’s life is turned upside down the day U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents show up unsuccessfully seeking his Pa at his New York City bodega. The Garcias live in fear until the day both parents are picked up; his Pa is taken to jail and his Ma to a detention center. The adults around Mateo offer support to him and his 7-year-old sister, Sophie, however, he knows he is now responsible for caring for her and the bodega as well as trying to survive junior year—that is, if he wants to fulfill his dream to enter the drama program at the Tisch School of the Arts and become an actor. Mateo’s relationships with his friends Kimmie and Adam (a potential love interest) also suffer repercussions as he keeps his situation a secret. Kimmie is half Korean (her other half is unspecified) and Adam is Italian American; Mateo feels disconnected from them, less American, and with worries they can’t understand. He talks himself out of choosing a safer course of action, a decision that deepens the story. Mateo’s self-awareness and inner monologue at times make him seem older than 16, and, with significant turmoil in the main plot, some side elements feel underdeveloped. Aleman’s narrative joins the ranks of heart-wrenching stories of migrant families who have been separated.
An ode to the children of migrants who have been taken away. (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: May 4, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-7595-5605-8
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 22, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A powerful story of family, belonging, and identity interlaced with thriller elements.
A wary teen wonders if she should run when people come looking for her.
Lucy Smith was raised by her white father, who said little about her mother. Following his death and her stepmother’s abandonment, Lucy entered the foster care system at 14. Her stepmother revealed that Lucy’s birth mom was Native American, but her social worker urged her to keep that quiet. Battered by her time in the foster care system, it’s no wonder that 18-year-old Lucy is cautious when she’s approached by a man who says he’s an attorney who helps Native American foster kids connect with their families and communities. He introduces her to a friend who reveals to Lucy that she knows her Ojibwe maternal relatives—but a wary Lucy refuses her offer to learn more. Someone is stalking her, after all, and the FBI is investigating the bomb that went off in the diner where she worked—an event she’s sure targeted her. This stand-alone from bestseller Boulley, who’s an enrolled member of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, includes characters her fans will recognize from previous works. The action scenes are mediated by ruminations on the failings of the foster care system and strong portrayals of Lucy’s relationship with her father and her complicated identity. Ardent book lover Lucy is a sympathetic narrator whose strong sense of justice is coupled with a deep acceptance of others.
A powerful story of family, belonging, and identity interlaced with thriller elements. (content warning, author’s note) (Thriller. 14-18)Pub Date: Sept. 2, 2025
ISBN: 9781250328533
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: May 30, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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