A fun story about a scrappy preteen who gets a chance at stardom.
In Simpson’s middle-grade novel, a 12-year-old girl who only cares about her music gets a chance to take her talent to the next level.
Olivia “Liv” Parker doesn’t have the best life; at 12 years old, she’s been in the foster care system for as long as she can remember. After the foster parents whom she bonded with the most, Big Momma and Randy, died, the state of Indiana placed her in the care of LM, Big Momma and Randy’s daughter, who is selfish, neglectful, and dimwitted. Liv, a self-admitted scammer and bully, doesn’t get along with her classmates and has no friends aside from a young woman named Jasmine, who lives nearby in their trailer park. The only thing Liv cares about is music. When she and Jasmine send an audition tape to the wildly popular singing competition show The Talent, she’s chosen to move on to the in-person auditions in Indianapolis. Competing against hundreds of other singers, Liv nails her audition and becomes a contestant on the TV show, which is filmed in Los Angeles. Jasmine tells producers that Liv’s father is in the military—a fictional “sob story” to boost Liv’s chances on the show. Another lie about Liv surviving cancer as a young child is added when the film crew interviews Liv and her “mother” LM—who only agrees to let Liv do the show because there’s a million-dollar prize on the line. Liv might have a shot at stardom…as long as no one unravels her web of lies. Simpson presents a compelling story about a talented and driven but jaded preteen who’s willing to do whatever it takes to achieve her dream of making it as a musician. Though Liv can be conniving and mean, readers won’t be able to resist rooting for her as she navigates the national spotlight, hones her craft, and grieves Big Momma and Randy. The prose often reads like a list of events rather than immersive scenes, but the plot is engaging, and Liv’s 12-year-old voice is completely believable.
A fun story about a scrappy preteen who gets a chance at stardom.Pub Date: Nov. 4, 2025
ISBN: 9798990948037
Page Count: 130
Publisher: Normal Ave Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 25, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Charming, poignant, and thoughtfully woven.
An aspiring scientist and a budding artist become friends and help each other with dream projects.
Unfolding in mid-1980s Sacramento, California, this story stars 12-year-olds Rosalind and Benjamin as first-person narrators in alternating chapters. Ro’s father, a fellow space buff, was killed by a drunk driver; the rocket they were working on together lies unfinished in her closet. As for Benji, not only has his best friend, Amir, moved away, but the comic book holding the clue for locating his dad is also missing. Along with their profound personal losses, the protagonists share a fixation with the universe’s intriguing potential: Ro decides to complete the rocket and hopes to launch mementos of her father into outer space while Benji’s conviction that aliens and UFOs are real compels his imagination and creativity as an artist. An accident in science class triggers a chain of events forcing Benji and Ro, who is new to the school, to interact and unintentionally learn each other’s secrets. They resolve to find Benji’s dad—a famous comic-book artist—and partner to finish Ro’s rocket for the science fair. Together, they overcome technical, scheduling, and geographical challenges. Readers will be drawn in by amusing and fantastical elements in the comic book theme, high emotional stakes that arouse sympathy, and well-drawn character development as the protagonists navigate life lessons around grief, patience, self-advocacy, and standing up for others. Ro is biracial (Chinese/White); Benji is White.
Charming, poignant, and thoughtfully woven. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Jan. 12, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-06-300888-5
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A deftly told story that dramatizes how Danes appointed themselves bodyguards—not only for their king, who was in the habit...
The author of the Anastasia books as well as more serious fiction (Rabble Starkey, 1987) offers her first historical fiction—a story about the escape of the Jews from Denmark in 1943.
Five years younger than Lisa in Carol Matas' Lisa's War (1989), Annemarie Johansen has, at 10, known three years of Nazi occupation. Though ever cautious and fearful of the ubiquitous soldiers, she is largely unaware of the extent of the danger around her; the Resistance kept even its participants safer by telling them as little as possible, and Annemarie has never been told that her older sister Lise died in its service. When the Germans plan to round up the Jews, the Johansens take in Annemarie's friend, Ellen Rosen, and pretend she is their daughter; later, they travel to Uncle Hendrik's house on the coast, where the Rosens and other Jews are transported by fishing boat to Sweden. Apart from Lise's offstage death, there is little violence here; like Annemarie, the reader is protected from the full implications of events—but will be caught up in the suspense and menace of several encounters with soldiers and in Annemarie's courageous run as courier on the night of the escape. The book concludes with the Jews' return, after the war, to homes well kept for them by their neighbors.
A deftly told story that dramatizes how Danes appointed themselves bodyguards—not only for their king, who was in the habit of riding alone in Copenhagen, but for their Jews. (Historical fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: April 1, 1989
ISBN: 0547577095
Page Count: 156
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: Oct. 17, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1989
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