Though it highlights a worthy subject, this pitch is overthrown.
In this story based on historical accounts of the 1870s Chinese Educational Mission, a young Chinese boy tries to balance filial obligation and American culture as he adapts to life in Connecticut.
Woo Ka-Leong and his older brother, Woo Ka-Sun, are among 120 boys sent to the United States by the Chinese government to learn English, obtain a Western education, and eventually return to help modernize China. While American railroads and the potential for adventure thrill Ka-Leong, Ka-Sun is wary of the people and customs. These tendencies only deepen as the brothers adjust to their host family and the onslaught of strange experiences—too-sweet pancakes for breakfast, a female teacher, and that curious game, baseball. Disappointingly, Yang troubles a timeless story of immigration and assimilation with inconsistencies. The text’s mixed references to Ka-Sun as “Elder Brother,” “Woo Ka-Sun,” “Carson,” and, well into the story, “Ah-Goh” unnecessarily addle the telling. Chinese usage is also uneven: although the boys come from the Cantonese-speaking Guangdong region, the transliteration sometimes uses Mandarin words (“li,” “changpao,” baozi,”), and italicization appears somewhat scattershot . Most strange, though, is Yang’s decision to turn Ka-Sun into a cartoonish villain. Certainly, shock and resistance are understandable responses to significant cultural change, but this account forgoes realistic exploration of that and opts instead for lurid drama.
Though it highlights a worthy subject, this pitch is overthrown. (Historical fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Aug. 15, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-943006-32-8
Page Count: 200
Publisher: SparkPress
Review Posted Online: June 18, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
An endearing protagonist runs the first, fast leg of Reynolds' promising relay.
Castle “Ghost” Cranshaw feels like he’s been running ever since his dad pulled that gun on him and his mom—and used it.
His dad’s been in jail three years now, but Ghost still feels the trauma, which is probably at the root of the many “altercations” he gets into at middle school. When he inserts himself into a practice for a local elite track team, the Defenders, he’s fast enough that the hard-as-nails coach decides to put him on the team. Ghost is surprised to find himself caring enough about being on the team that he curbs his behavior to avoid “altercations.” But Ma doesn’t have money to spare on things like fancy running shoes, so Ghost shoplifts a pair that make his feet feel impossibly light—and his conscience correspondingly heavy. Ghost’s narration is candid and colloquial, reminiscent of such original voices as Bud Caldwell and Joey Pigza; his level of self-understanding is both believably childlike and disarming in its perception. He is self-focused enough that secondary characters initially feel one-dimensional, Coach in particular, but as he gets to know them better, so do readers, in a way that unfolds naturally and pleasingly. His three fellow “newbies” on the Defenders await their turns to star in subsequent series outings. Characters are black by default; those few white people in Ghost’s world are described as such.
An endearing protagonist runs the first, fast leg of Reynolds' promising relay. (Fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Aug. 30, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4814-5015-7
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Caitlyn Dlouhy/Atheneum
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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PROFILES
SEEN & HEARD
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic.
Chainani works an elaborate sea change akin to Gregory Maguire’s Wicked (1995), though he leaves the waters muddied.
Every four years, two children, one regarded as particularly nice and the other particularly nasty, are snatched from the village of Gavaldon by the shadowy School Master to attend the divided titular school. Those who survive to graduate become major or minor characters in fairy tales. When it happens to sweet, Disney princess–like Sophie and her friend Agatha, plain of features, sour of disposition and low of self-esteem, they are both horrified to discover that they’ve been dropped not where they expect but at Evil and at Good respectively. Gradually—too gradually, as the author strings out hundreds of pages of Hogwarts-style pranks, classroom mishaps and competitions both academic and romantic—it becomes clear that the placement wasn’t a mistake at all. Growing into their true natures amid revelations and marked physical changes, the two spark escalating rivalry between the wings of the school. This leads up to a vicious climactic fight that sees Good and Evil repeatedly switching sides. At this point, readers are likely to feel suddenly left behind, as, thanks to summary deus ex machina resolutions, everything turns out swell(ish).
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic. (Fantasy. 11-13)Pub Date: May 14, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-06-210489-2
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2013
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BOOK TO SCREEN
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