This will satisfy those readers who don’t want many challenges in their stories; the bonus of being written by a WNBA star...
In this series opener, WNBA star Delle Donne (My Shot, 2017) shares a story clearly based on her own experiences playing basketball in middle school.
There’s plenty of basketball as well as typical early-adolescent moments as narrator Elle Deluca asserts her desire to play not just because she is 6 feet tall in seventh grade, but because she is skilled. Elle is white, and the other members of the team at her small private school in Wilmington, Delaware, display a fair amount of surface diversity. One girl, Coach Ramirez’s daughter, is one of several with Latinx-pointing surnames; another is known for sewing her own hijabs; and one named Hannah is of Indian heritage (and has stereotypically strict parents). Little else distinguishes their culture or ethnicity. (The faculty is stunningly diverse, as is the curriculum.) Spring Meadow is a K-12 school, with a traditional cotillion requiring the girls and boys from seventh grade up to dress formally, and for Elle, who is feeling awkward from her growth spurt, this is agony. Shopping for a dress is an ordeal, and many readers will relate to her unhappiness at being pushed into situations she’d much rather avoid. Aside from this rather bland subplot, the story is, unsurprisingly, focused on basketball.
This will satisfy those readers who don’t want many challenges in their stories; the bonus of being written by a WNBA star will be its true calling card. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: March 6, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5344-1231-6
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Dec. 2, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
A successful call for creating and imagining, even if the story itself falls short.
In the dystopian, totalitarian world of 2099, 14-year-old Tessa and her family are desperate to solve the mystery of her twin brother Theo’s disappearance.
Tessa is growing up in a time when playgrounds are historical relics, surveillance cameras are everywhere, music is outlawed, and owning books is illegal. Under the absolute rule of Zokiris, the decadeslong leader of her territory, people are heavily controlled. When Theo vanishes under mysterious circumstances and his name is erased from the Territory Statistics list, Tessa’s 135-year-old neighbor, Miriam, gives the family contraband books that become central to figuring out Theo’s whereabouts. Most books have long since been seized and stored away in Building 903; Tessa is intrigued by their presence in her home, while her mother is terrified. Lowry, the acclaimed, award-winning author of The Giver (1993), shines in her creation of uncomfortably believable dystopian societies. Tessa’s painfully limited world is fully imagined, with its own history, laws, and norms. Her relationship with her brother reads as realistic and tender and is crucial to the mystery. Miriam is the most strongly developed character: wise and independent, unafraid and hopeful. While the climb to the book’s climax is captivating, the hurried resolution is disappointing. The powerful messaging around the importance of literature and imagination certainly resonates, however. The main characters present white.
A successful call for creating and imagining, even if the story itself falls short. (Dystopian. 9-12)Pub Date: Sept. 29, 2026
ISBN: 9780063515109
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Clarion/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 6, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2026
Charming, poignant, and thoughtfully woven.
An aspiring scientist and a budding artist become friends and help each other with dream projects.
Unfolding in mid-1980s Sacramento, California, this story stars 12-year-olds Rosalind and Benjamin as first-person narrators in alternating chapters. Ro’s father, a fellow space buff, was killed by a drunk driver; the rocket they were working on together lies unfinished in her closet. As for Benji, not only has his best friend, Amir, moved away, but the comic book holding the clue for locating his dad is also missing. Along with their profound personal losses, the protagonists share a fixation with the universe’s intriguing potential: Ro decides to complete the rocket and hopes to launch mementos of her father into outer space while Benji’s conviction that aliens and UFOs are real compels his imagination and creativity as an artist. An accident in science class triggers a chain of events forcing Benji and Ro, who is new to the school, to interact and unintentionally learn each other’s secrets. They resolve to find Benji’s dad—a famous comic-book artist—and partner to finish Ro’s rocket for the science fair. Together, they overcome technical, scheduling, and geographical challenges. Readers will be drawn in by amusing and fantastical elements in the comic book theme, high emotional stakes that arouse sympathy, and well-drawn character development as the protagonists navigate life lessons around grief, patience, self-advocacy, and standing up for others. Ro is biracial (Chinese/White); Benji is White.
Charming, poignant, and thoughtfully woven. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Jan. 12, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-06-300888-5
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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