An uneven treatment of a critical and timely subject.
Pennsylvania middle schooler Bess Stein is the new sixth grade class president, and she has a lot of plans.
Bess is working with the school librarian, Mr. Jasper, and the class vice president, June Myer, a recent transplant from Texas, to choose titles for the new book vending machine, one of her campaign promises. Bess, who’s Jewish, hopes to include volumes about the Holocaust; her great-grandmother was a survivor. Everything starts off well, until June’s mother becomes aware of the titles on offer and objects to the inclusion of those she considers “inappropriate, indecent, and offensive” and ones that are “divisive”—in other words, books representing diverse perspectives and identities. Bess, who’s supported by her family and the Book Warriors, a group of local librarians and educators, challenges the conservative Mrs. Myer and those who sympathize with her cause. Many other topics vie for space and aren’t fully developed, including explorations of friendship drama, antisemitism, hints of romance between Bess and June’s brother, Bess’ younger brother’s anxiety, and the Steins’ family dog. Bess is strong-willed, capable, and idealistic, but she isn’t always understanding of others’ weaknesses (for example, June’s struggles with her mother’s attitudes). June, for her part, never fully comes alive as a character. Swartz handles important topics in a convincing manner, but the empathetic storytelling unfortunately contains repetitious elements. Main characters are cued white.
An uneven treatment of a critical and timely subject. (author’s note) (Fiction. 10-12)Pub Date: Jan. 14, 2025
ISBN: 9780593705605
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2024
On equal footing with a garden-variety potato.
The new kid in school endures becoming the school mascot.
Ben Hardy has never cared for potatoes, and this distaste has become a barrier to adjusting to life in his new Idaho town. His school’s mascot is the Spud, and after a series of misfortunes, Ben is enlisted to don the potato costume and cheer on his school’s team. Ben balances his duties as a life-sized potato against his desperate desire to hide the fact that he’s the dork in the suit. After all, his cute new crush, Jayla, wouldn’t be too impressed to discover Ben’s secret. The ensuing novel is a fairly boilerplate middle–grade narrative: snarky tween protagonist, the crush that isn’t quite what she seems, and a pair of best friends that have more going on than our hero initially believes. The author keeps the novel moving quickly, pushing forward with witty asides and narrative momentum so fast that readers won’t really mind that the plot’s spine is one they’ve encountered many times before. Once finished, readers will feel little resonance and move on to the next book in their to-read piles, but in the moment the novel is pleasant enough. Ben, Jayla, and Ben’s friend Hunter are white while Ellie, Ben’s other good pal, is Latina.
On equal footing with a garden-variety potato. (Fiction. 10-12)Pub Date: March 24, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-11866-5
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Nov. 23, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
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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