by Diana López ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 11, 2013
Balancing the heavy subject matter with generous doses of humor and an authentic young teen voice, López crafts a story that...
A funny and heartfelt story about a girl dealing with the trials of middle school and her mother’s breast cancer.
Until the summer before eighth grade, 13-year-old Erica “Chia” Montenegro has only had to worry about her ever-expanding Chia Pet collection, her annoying siblings and “close encounters” with the boys on her Boyfriend Wish List. When her mother is diagnosed with breast cancer, Erica’s world is turned upside down. Readers feel the weight of the worry and stress overwhelming Erica as she narrates her struggle to balance a heavier academic load, increased household chores and caring for her 2-year-old brother so that her mother, exhausted from chemotherapy treatments, can rest. It only makes things worse that her mood ring seems to better understand her feelings than the Robins, her nosy group of friends. When Erica makes a promesa, committing to get 500 sponsors for her Race for the Cure walk, she finds it’s not an easy promise to keep, and she’ll need to be strong in order to help herself and her family make it through this challenging time.
Balancing the heavy subject matter with generous doses of humor and an authentic young teen voice, López crafts a story that blends family and middle school drama successfully. (Fiction. 11-14)Pub Date: June 11, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-316-20996-0
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: March 19, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2013
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by Diana López ; illustrated by Teresa Martínez
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by Susin Nielsen ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 11, 2018
An outstanding addition to the inadequate-parent genre.
For 12-year-old, “fifty percent Swedish, twenty-five percent Haitian, twenty-five percent French” Felix, all of his scary stories are about the Ministry of Children and Family Development—the Canadian agency that has the power to take him from his mom and place him in foster care.
His flighty mother, Astrid (she’s the Swedish part), is both depressed and chronically under- or often unemployed. His father is mostly out of the picture. Astrid will do what she needs to, including artfully lying and stealing, to keep their heads—barely—above water as they descend into homelessness. As depicted with gritty realism, the pair has been living in a van for months, using public restrooms, and rarely having enough to eat. But Felix has two great friends, Winnie, who is Asian, and Dylan, who is white; they will watch his back whatever comes. Sadly, they have little idea of his truly dire situation since he’s so resourceful at hiding his problems in order to stave off the MCFD. When Felix is selected to appear on a quiz show, it seems as if it could offer a resolution for their troubles: Winning would earn him a $25,000 prize. Felix’s deeply engrossing and fully immersive first-person narrative of homelessness is both illuminating and heartbreaking. Although the story ends with hope for the future, it’s his winsome and affecting determination that will win readers over.
An outstanding addition to the inadequate-parent genre. (Fiction. 11-14)Pub Date: Sept. 11, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5247-6834-8
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Wendy Lamb/Random
Review Posted Online: June 10, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2018
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by Susin Nielsen ; illustrated by Olivia Chin Mueller
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by Kate Allen ; illustrated by Xingye Jin ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 16, 2019
Rich, complex, and confidently voiced.
Lucy finds solace in her late mother’s passion for shark biology during a summer that brings a new grief.
First-person narrator Lucy and neighbor Fred are compiling a field guide to animals they find near their Rockport, Massachusetts, home. Lucy is the artist, Fred the scientist, and their lifelong friendship is only just hinting that it could become something more. Lucy’s mother, who died of a brain aneurysm when Lucy was 7, five years earlier in 1991, was a recognized shark biologist; her father is a police diver. When a great white is snagged by a local fisherman—a family friend—video footage of an interview with Lucy’s mother surfaces on the news, and Lucy longs to know more. But then another loved one dies, drowned in a quarry accident, and it is Lucy’s father who recovers the body—in their small community it seems everyone is grappling with the pain. Lucy’s persistence in learning about the anatomy of sharks in order to draw them is a kind of homage to those she’s lost. Most of the characters are white; a marine scientist woman of color and protégée of Lucy’s mother plays a key role. Allen offers, through Lucy’s voice, a look at the intersection of art, science, friendship, and love in a way that is impressively nuanced and realistic while offering the reassurance of connection.
Rich, complex, and confidently voiced. (Historical fiction. 11-14)Pub Date: April 16, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-7352-3160-3
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2019
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