A compelling story of a neurodivergent protagonist.
In Adams’ YA novel, a Minnesotan teen faces misunderstandings and challenges due to auditory processing disorder (APD).
Fourteen-year-old Allie Little doesn’t have it easy. She was diagnosed with APD as a young child and struggles with managing everyday tasks, her classes, and social situations, due in part to her difficulties understanding speech. She works with a speech therapist and special education advisor, Mrs. Dutchison, but she has no friends at school; instead, her classmates frequently bully her—particularly the Decker sisters: Queenie, Asa, and Jackie. Her English teacher, Mrs. Heartred, belittles her disability and openly resents the accommodations she needs to make in her classroom, such as speaking into a microphone. Allie’s home life isn’t much better; her parents are divorced and her father lives in another city, so Allie only sees him every few months. Her mother, a charge nurse for an at-home healthcare agency, is constantly preoccupied with work and always seems to be frustrated by Allie’s APD, even though she may have some similar challenges. Allie is a talented artist and has an active imagination, but she lacks confidence. When she goes on a field trip aboard a ferry called the Wonder, she encounters a mysterious British amateur photographer named Charlie Carroll who, despite some apparent cognitive differences of his own, exudes confidence and joy—and may help Allie to find self-acceptance. Over the course of this novel, Adams weaves an intriguing, character-driven tale. Allie serves as the story’s narrator, so readers effectively experience events as she perceives them. It’s a reality that’s sometimes disorienting and chaotic, with surreal elements. The Decker sisters and Mrs. Heartred feel like exaggerated caricatures; however, this is exactly how a bullied child might see their adversaries. Allie is a compelling and well-developed character, and readers will appreciate Adams’ complex and compassionate portrayal of ADP, as well as the many allusions to Lewis Carroll’s classic Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865).
A compelling story of a neurodivergent protagonist.Pub Date: June 17, 2025
ISBN: 9781643435268
Page Count: 204
Publisher: Beaver's Pond Press
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2025
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
This grittily provocative debut explores the horrors of self-harm and the healing power of artistic expression.
After surviving a suicide attempt, a fragile teen isn't sure she can endure without cutting herself.
Seventeen-year-old Charlie Davis, a white girl living on the margins, thinks she has little reason to live: her father drowned himself; her bereft and abusive mother kicked her out; her best friend, Ellis, is nearly brain dead after cutting too deeply; and she's gone through unspeakable experiences living on the street. After spending time in treatment with other young women like her—who cut, burn, poke, and otherwise hurt themselves—Charlie is released and takes a bus from the Twin Cities to Tucson to be closer to Mikey, a boy she "like-likes" but who had pined for Ellis instead. But things don't go as planned in the Arizona desert, because sweet Mikey just wants to be friends. Feeling rejected, Charlie, an artist, is drawn into a destructive new relationship with her sexy older co-worker, a "semifamous" local musician who's obviously a junkie alcoholic. Through intense, diarylike chapters chronicling Charlie's journey, the author captures the brutal and heartbreaking way "girls who write their pain on their bodies" scar and mar themselves, either succumbing or surviving. Like most issue books, this is not an easy read, but it's poignant and transcendent as Charlie breaks more and more before piecing herself back together.
This grittily provocative debut explores the horrors of self-harm and the healing power of artistic expression. (author’s note) (Fiction. 14 & up)Pub Date: Aug. 30, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-101-93471-5
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2016
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