Her parents' decision to accept a temporary teaching stint at a small Missouri college leaves Melissa Jensen frustrated; it means leaving her New York City friends and school, where she excels in the orchestra and drama classes. She could have stayed with her grandparents, but the thought of living in their Orthodox Jewish home held no appeal for her. All the Jensens are in for a pleasant surprise, however. Chris, a handsome senior at Henryville High, meets them at the airport and delivers them to their beautiful new home, shows them their new Saab, and promises that he and his sister will help Melissa adjust. She settles in more quickly than she dreamed, working on her violin-playing, becoming assistant director for the production of Romeo and Juliet, and coaching multi-talented Daniel, the school's only observant Jew, in the leading role. But Daniel has become the target of cruel anti-Semitism, led by popular football star, hulking Johnny McGraw. Melissa feels a sense of shame for concealing her own Jewish identity, and for not knowing more about her religion. Other students join Melissa in condemning Johnny's behavior, admitting that they, believing that his opinions and pranks were harmless, had been silent too long. Sherman exhibits a heavy hand in outlining all this, but her characters prove more complex than they seem initially, and she keeps the plot moving along at a good clip. Melissa's crush on Chris and her eventual deeper feelings for Daniel make this ideal for romance readers, and its message is one that always bears repeating. (Fiction. 10-14)
Pub Date: Oct. 15, 1998
ISBN: 0-8276-0595-1
Page Count: 121
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1998
Categories: CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S FAMILY
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An engrossing, humorous, and vitally important graphic novel that should be required reading in every middle school in...
15
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Jordan Banks takes readers down the rabbit hole and into his mostly white prep school in this heartbreakingly accurate middle-grade tale of race, class, microaggressions, and the quest for self-identity.
He may be the new kid, but as an African-American boy from Washington Heights, that stigma entails so much more than getting lost on the way to homeroom. Riverdale Academy Day School, located at the opposite end of Manhattan, is a world away, and Jordan finds himself a stranger in a foreign land, where pink clothing is called salmon, white administrators mistake a veteran African-American teacher for the football coach, and white classmates ape African-American Vernacular English to make themselves sound cool. Jordan’s a gifted artist, and his drawings blend with the narrative to give readers a full sense of his two worlds and his methods of coping with existing in between. Craft skillfully employs the graphic-novel format to its full advantage, giving his readers a delightful and authentic cast of characters who, along with New York itself, pop off the page with vibrancy and nuance. Shrinking Jordan to ant-sized proportions upon his entering the school cafeteria, for instance, transforms the lunchroom into a grotesque Wonderland in which his lack of social standing becomes visually arresting and viscerally uncomfortable.
An engrossing, humorous, and vitally important graphic novel that should be required reading in every middle school in America. (Graphic fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Feb. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-06-269120-0
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Oct. 15, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2018
Categories: CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | GENERAL GRAPHIC NOVELS & COMICS
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An endearing protagonist runs the first, fast leg of Reynolds' promising relay.
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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 20, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2016
Categories: CHILDREN'S ENTERTAINMENT & SPORTS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES
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