A heartfelt but disappointing attempt at convincingly presenting a Syrian refugee’s perspective.
A Syrian teen grows up quickly when her family becomes refugees in Jordan.
Safiya is a 12-year-old girl whose life carried on normally despite the ongoing Syrian civil war, as the conflict had yet to truly affect her city of Damascus. This all changes when a client of her father’s law practice is pursued by the government’s secret police and Safiya’s world is turned upside down. She and her family are forced to flee their home and live as refugees in Jordan, where her late mother came from. Safiya quickly learns that she must adapt in order to survive in this new country, living in a tent without a means of income or status. Though the details of the war are well explained and the author—who has worked in Syrian refugee camps in Jordan—attempts to write persuasively from the perspective of a Syrian girl, with Arabic words sprinkled throughout, the book falls short in conveying the cultural setting and authentically representing a Syrian family. Generic descriptions fail to bring Syria and Jordan vividly to life, and the story feels like it could have been about refugees from any country. Additionally, the author describes characters and situations in ways that at times reinforce Western stereotypes. Though Middle Eastern readers may not feel represented, the themes of hard work and family triumph will resonate with many readers. Occasional ink-wash–style illustrations supplement the text.
A heartfelt but disappointing attempt at convincingly presenting a Syrian refugee’s perspective. (map, author's note) (Fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: March 1, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5098-2824-1
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Macmillan Children's Books
Review Posted Online: Jan. 11, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Intermittently intriguing, this overlong, high-concept debut mostly plods.
Two white preteens—one nearly homeless, one affluent—connect in San Francisco.
Abruptly quitting her Chicago restaurant job, Jeanne Ann’s single mom, Joyce, drove the van they now live in to California and parked among the line of vans blocking ocean views for affluent residents, including Cal and his single mom, Lizzie, owner of a trendy vegetarian restaurant. With her prison record and refusal to compromise career goals, Joyce can’t find work. When money runs out, Jeanne Ann sells her beloved books. Hunger sets in; the public restroom’s cold-water tap serves for bathing. Meanwhile, socially awkward Cal pays a price for painting an unauthorized mural at his private school: working at his mom’s restaurant and attending public school. A neighbor, aware that Cal sketches the van dwellers and feeds their meters—helps him slip Jeanne Ann snacks and money. A wary friendship grows. Joyce takes a dishwashing job, Lizzie’s chef takes an interest in Jeanne Ann, and some mansion dwellers plot to evict the van-dwellers. Though Jeanne Ann’s description of food insecurity is haunting, the rambling, far-fetched plot often resembles a clever, extended elevator pitch. Despite manifestly good intentions, little light is shed on income inequality; events are too unlikely, characters too exceptional for readers to recognize or identify with. While “good” adults are interchangeable paragons of quirky wisdom, grumpy-but-interesting Joyce remains frustratingly underdeveloped.
Intermittently intriguing, this overlong, high-concept debut mostly plods. (Fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-399-53903-9
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 8, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2019
A solid debut: fluent, funny and eminently sequel-worthy.
Inventively tweaking a popular premise, Jensen pits two Incredibles-style families with superpowers against each other—until a new challenge rises to unite them.
The Johnsons invariably spit at the mere mention of their hated rivals, the Baileys. Likewise, all Baileys habitually shake their fists when referring to the Johnsons. Having long looked forward to getting a superpower so that he too can battle his clan’s nemeses, Rafter Bailey is devastated when, instead of being able to fly or something else cool, he acquires the “power” to strike a match on soft polyester. But when hated classmate Juanita Johnson turns up newly endowed with a similarly bogus power and, against all family tradition, they compare notes, it becomes clear that something fishy is going on. Both families regard themselves as the heroes and their rivals as the villains. Someone has been inciting them to fight each other. Worse yet, that someone has apparently developed a device that turns real superpowers into silly ones. Teaching themselves on the fly how to get past their prejudice and work together, Rafter, his little brother, Benny, and Juanita follow a well-laid-out chain of clues and deductions to the climactic discovery of a third, genuinely nefarious family, the Joneses, and a fiendishly clever scheme to dispose of all the Baileys and Johnsons at once. Can they carry the day?
A solid debut: fluent, funny and eminently sequel-worthy. (Adventure. 10-12)Pub Date: Jan. 21, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-06-220961-0
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Nov. 1, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
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