An uneven and ultimately conventional coming-of-age story set in 1960s Queens.
A Jewish American teen grows up among the chaos of the late 1960s in Barnehama’s YA novel.
Zach Hineniwas born during the final game of the 1955 World Series—a story that his family of Holocaust-surviving Dodgers fans loves to tell. Zach notes that when the Dodgers won, “they gave every immigrant proof that in America, the bums did have a chance of coming out on top. The home of the free was truly a land of possibility.” Thirteen years later, in 1968, the Dodgers have moved to a different city, the land of possibility seems to be coming apart at the seams, and Zach is preparing for his bar mitzvah. The night before the ceremony, his college-student sister plays him Bob Dylan’s music and gets him high for the first time. He finds he has a taste for the changing times and dives into his teenage years, exploring new music, rooting for his new baseball team—the Mets—and getting into adventures with a tight group of new friends, including the alluring Samm. The war in Vietnam looms over everything, however, and Samm’s older brother is haunted by flashbacks of his tour there. For Zach and the others, the line between the end of childhood and the beginning of adulthood is a blurry one, indeed. Over the course of the novel, Barnehama’s prose is smooth even if its content is often heavy-handed, as in this description of when Zach hears Bob Dylan for the first time: “My mind exploded as it tried to wrap itself around ideas being used as maps….Lies and jealousy and mutiny and equality. Dylan spoke those words like they were wedding vows.” Overall, the book is a nostalgia trip, which is both its strength and its weakness. Barnehama successfully captures some of the joys and angst of adolescence, and the Mets material, in particular, is wonderfully specific. However, the main markers of the era—Dylan, Vietnam—feel somewhat shoehorned into the narrative, and readers won’t find the story nearly as revelatory as Zach does.
An uneven and ultimately conventional coming-of-age story set in 1960s Queens.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 978-1-955062-02-2
Page Count: -
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An ode to the children of migrants who have been taken away.
A Mexican American boy takes on heavy responsibilities when his family is torn apart.
Mateo’s life is turned upside down the day U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents show up unsuccessfully seeking his Pa at his New York City bodega. The Garcias live in fear until the day both parents are picked up; his Pa is taken to jail and his Ma to a detention center. The adults around Mateo offer support to him and his 7-year-old sister, Sophie, however, he knows he is now responsible for caring for her and the bodega as well as trying to survive junior year—that is, if he wants to fulfill his dream to enter the drama program at the Tisch School of the Arts and become an actor. Mateo’s relationships with his friends Kimmie and Adam (a potential love interest) also suffer repercussions as he keeps his situation a secret. Kimmie is half Korean (her other half is unspecified) and Adam is Italian American; Mateo feels disconnected from them, less American, and with worries they can’t understand. He talks himself out of choosing a safer course of action, a decision that deepens the story. Mateo’s self-awareness and inner monologue at times make him seem older than 16, and, with significant turmoil in the main plot, some side elements feel underdeveloped. Aleman’s narrative joins the ranks of heart-wrenching stories of migrant families who have been separated.
An ode to the children of migrants who have been taken away. (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: May 4, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-7595-5605-8
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 22, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Black is building a complex mythology; now is a great time to tune in.
Black is back with another dark tale of Faerie, this one set in Faerie and launching a new trilogy.
Jude—broken, rebuilt, fueled by anger and a sense of powerlessness—has never recovered from watching her adoptive Faerie father murder her parents. Human Jude (whose brown hair curls and whose skin color is never described) both hates and loves Madoc, whose murderous nature is true to his Faerie self and who in his way loves her. Brought up among the Gentry, Jude has never felt at ease, but after a decade, Faerie has become her home despite the constant peril. Black’s latest looks at nature and nurture and spins a tale of court intrigue, bloodshed, and a truly messed-up relationship that might be the saving of Jude and the titular prince, who, like Jude, has been shaped by the cruelties of others. Fierce and observant Jude is utterly unaware of the currents that swirl around her. She fights, plots, even murders enemies, but she must also navigate her relationship with her complex family (human, Faerie, and mixed). This is a heady blend of Faerie lore, high fantasy, and high school drama, dripping with description that brings the dangerous but tempting world of Faerie to life.
Black is building a complex mythology; now is a great time to tune in. (Fantasy. 14-adult)Pub Date: Jan. 2, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-316-31027-7
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Sept. 25, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2017
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