A reasonably amusing gift for band students but not one they’ll want to revisit.
A book of rhyming poetry for concert and marching band nerds.
This illustrated collection presents a lighthearted love of all things band—from jokes about different instruments (arrogant trumpet players come up several times and there’s a saxophonist who has four extra fingers) to silly rhymes. An introduction titled “Stereotypes” explains how stereotypes can be harmful and concludes that “we can choose to let them shape us, or we can choose to write a silly poem book about them and laugh it off.” However, this push back against stereotypes, such as that band nerds are awkward and undatable, would all play better if so many poems didn’t fall flat. Additionally, unkind comments about people’s appearances (including pictures that caricature someone with an overbite and a woman whose too-tight top pops open) and the reliance on gender norms (the band director is always depicted as a man) strike a wrong note. A longer poem about a group of boys and their male band director on a trip who spy on strangers being intimate in a hot tub—“we all remember ‘hot tub’ night / As the night we all grew up”—feels out of place for the mostly child-friendly tone of the collection. The black-and-white line illustrations add context and additional humor to the poems. Most characters appear White, but there is some ethnic diversity throughout.
A reasonably amusing gift for band students but not one they’ll want to revisit. (Poetry. 13-18)Pub Date: Oct. 6, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-72821-982-0
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Sourcebooks eXplore
Review Posted Online: Aug. 13, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A sweet, slow-paced novel about a teen learning to love her body.
Greer Walsh wishes she were one person...unfortunately, with her large breasts, she feels like she’s actually three.
High school sophomore and math whiz Greer is self-conscious about her body. Maude and Mavis, as she’s named her large breasts, are causing problems for her. When Greer meets new kid Jackson Oates, she wishes even more that she had a body that she didn’t feel a need to hide underneath XXL T-shirts. While trying to impress Jackson, who has moved to the Chicago suburbs from Cleveland, Greer decides to try out for her school’s volleyball team. When she makes JV, Greer is forced to come to terms with how her body looks and feels in a uniform and in motion as well as with being physically close with her teammates. The story is told in the first person from Greer’s point of view. Inconsistent storytelling as well as Greer’s (somewhat distracting) personified inner butterfly make this realistic novel a slow but overall enjoyable read. The story contains elements of light romance as well as strong female friendships. Greer is white with a Christian mom and Jewish dad; Jackson seems to be white by default, and there is diversity among the secondary characters.
A sweet, slow-paced novel about a teen learning to love her body. (Fiction. 12-18)Pub Date: June 23, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-1524-8
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
A lively novel with as much appeal as the band itself.
Saturday has everything a boy band should: sleek choreography, stylish clothes, and, of course, enough personality and intrigue to keep the world interested.
Ruben Montez and Zach Knight comprise one-half of this infallible formula. Ruben, the musical-theater–obsessed son of wealthy Spanish immigrants, tones down his energy and his incredible voice on stage to fit the cookie-cutter image of ordinary boy next door. Zach, a White boy from Oregon, is a leather-clad rebel in front of the cameras and a devoted and thoughtful son to his single mother behind them. As they embark on their first international tour, these four 18-year-olds—Ruben, Zach, and band mates Angel Phan (cued as Vietnamese American) and Jon Braxton (who has a Black mom and a White dad who is Saturday’s band manager)—wrestle with the expectations of their fans, their management team, their grueling touring schedule, their parents, and, most of all, their own bounding, leaping hearts. In this unexpectedly poignant love story, the glamorous facade of stardom is peeled away to reveal the human cogs of the great pop-culture machine. While often comfortably formulaic, the story subverts expectations in refreshing ways: Family conflict stems from causes other than bigotry, mental health struggles are acknowledged and destigmatized, and, pleasingly, in this story about the pitfalls of boy-band fame, teenage girls aren’t the villains.
A lively novel with as much appeal as the band itself. (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: Dec. 7, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-250-80580-5
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 15, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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