Despite a lack of gray area, these educational short stories make for appealing, quick reads.
In a series of short stories that integrate English and Spanish, characters face love, loss and hard decisions, while consequences follow closely behind.
A boy witnesses his friend’s death by a stray bullet and grows up to become a protective father. A teenager gives up his last few dollars to buy a disappointing firecracker. A young man discovers his beloved grandmother needs him more than he needs her. Bertrand offers characters that inhabit their lives with a predictability that younger readers will find reassuring and older readers may find frustrating. In these microworlds, people who behave badly are punished accordingly, and those who make positive decisions are rewarded. Bertrand’s characters are well-crafted and manage to suggest lives beyond the page, but the dichotomous nature of morality in her stories can be distracting for readers who, even at a young age, know this isn’t a reflection of the real world. The stories contain many natural occurrences of Spanish vocabulary, and the Spanish version of the entire collection appears later in the book. Study questions for readers supply another layer of educational content in a book that appears written with classrooms in mind.
Despite a lack of gray area, these educational short stories make for appealing, quick reads. (Short stories. 10-13)Pub Date: May 13, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-55885-784-1
Page Count: 76
Publisher: Piñata Books/Arte Público
Review Posted Online: March 30, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2014
In a noir caper with racial overtones, the Big Bad Wolf’s son escapes from juvie and uncovers an ugly corporate plot to corner the fairy-dust market. With all the fairies suddenly gone from the floating city of Eden, the only magic left to the evolved wolves, dwarves, goblins, cats, elves and foxes in the earthbound city below comes in adulterated form from the dust mines of human-owned Nimbus Thaumaturgical (“Better Living Through Enchantment”) or illegally through the nixie mob. Determined to find out what really happened to the fairies, Henry Whelp becomes a nixiedust runner and discovers horrors both below ground and in the aerial realm—capped by the revelation of a genocidal scheme to develop a bad dust that will cause all of the “animalia” species to revert to their bestial originals. There's only a glimmer of hope that some fairies survive, but with plenty of help from an attractive lupine photojournalist and a sack of very special beans passed on by a human thief named Jack, Henry takes on the foes of multispecies amity. Weston deftly tucks his fairy-tale tropes into this thought-provoking mystery. (Fantasy/mystery. 11-13)
Pub Date: Nov. 25, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-59514-296-2
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Razorbill/Penguin
Review Posted Online: Dec. 23, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2010
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An unlikely premise isn’t the weakest feature of this illogical, contrived and poorly blocked-out eco-thriller. In this devastated, Mad Max–style future, North America has devolved into warring, depopulated regions, and nearly all of the planet’s fresh water has melted into the oceans, become polluted or is tightly controlled by tyrannical governments and corporations. Teenage Midwesterners Vera and Will trek through this blasted landscape to rescue their kidnapped friend, Kai. Despite having no idea who took Kai or where they went, Vera and Will stay tight on his trail thanks to fortuitously timed help from rough-cut but heart-of-gold Water Pirates, casually murderous terrorists and a remarkably well-armed freelance desalinator. After repeated miraculous escapes from captivity or death, Vera and Will are led straight to an offshore platform where Kai and his father are being held, overhear all the political and corporate kingpins discussing their plans and get away. In a bewildering denouement, they somehow liberate the world with a televised geyser that springs from an untapped aquifer that Kai has found using psychic abilities. Huh? The high body count may keep bottom feeders engaged. (Science fiction. 11-13)
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-4022-4369-1
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Review Posted Online: Dec. 25, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2010
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