An emotional tale of a young person’s journey from heartbreak to hope.
Litch offers a middle-grade novel about a young boy confronting a bully, dealing with grief, and surviving a near-death experience.
Eleven-year-old Michael Morton is small for his age, and he endures the frequent cruelty of school bully Brad. At the same time, Michael is mourning the loss of his mother and grandfather. He finds solace beneath an ancient willow, which he calls “Weeper”; he sees the tree as his friend and a peaceful place to practice drawing superheroes. One day, he ventures too far out on one of Weeper’s branches, which snaps, sending him crashing to the ground. As Michael hovers between life and death, he experiences profound spiritual visions and feelings of love, peace and serenity. He sees his late mother, who imparts life-changing wisdom—“Pain doesn’t always wear the same face…. Sometimes the ones who hurt us are hurting too”—and knowledge about the troubled home life of someone he knows. Michael recovers with support from his neighbor Dr. Tanaka, his Aunt Diane, his father, and his friends Monica Thompson and Danny Rogers. Guided by his mom’s words, Michael resolves to “[look] for the good in everyone,” which reshapes his perspective on life. When Michael faces the difficulty of choosing a dog at the shelter, he turns to an unlikely figure for advice, sowing the seeds of friendship. By sixth grade, Michael understands that compassion can heal even the deepest wounds. Over the course of this novel, Litch’s writing is sincere and thoughtful, confronting painful subjects head-on. The story has a spiritual tone without being overtly religious and feels uplifting while maintaining a sense of realism. This beautifully crafted book is about recognizing each person’s “superpower” and appreciating their uniqueness. It also ably explores the concept of coming to terms with loss while preserving the departed’s spiritual presence, which may comfort many readers.
An emotional tale of a young person’s journey from heartbreak to hope.Pub Date: Oct. 16, 2025
ISBN: 9780971686960
Page Count: 141
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Dec. 27, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
A deftly told story that dramatizes how Danes appointed themselves bodyguards—not only for their king, who was in the habit...
The author of the Anastasia books as well as more serious fiction (Rabble Starkey, 1987) offers her first historical fiction—a story about the escape of the Jews from Denmark in 1943.
Five years younger than Lisa in Carol Matas' Lisa's War (1989), Annemarie Johansen has, at 10, known three years of Nazi occupation. Though ever cautious and fearful of the ubiquitous soldiers, she is largely unaware of the extent of the danger around her; the Resistance kept even its participants safer by telling them as little as possible, and Annemarie has never been told that her older sister Lise died in its service. When the Germans plan to round up the Jews, the Johansens take in Annemarie's friend, Ellen Rosen, and pretend she is their daughter; later, they travel to Uncle Hendrik's house on the coast, where the Rosens and other Jews are transported by fishing boat to Sweden. Apart from Lise's offstage death, there is little violence here; like Annemarie, the reader is protected from the full implications of events—but will be caught up in the suspense and menace of several encounters with soldiers and in Annemarie's courageous run as courier on the night of the escape. The book concludes with the Jews' return, after the war, to homes well kept for them by their neighbors.
A deftly told story that dramatizes how Danes appointed themselves bodyguards—not only for their king, who was in the habit of riding alone in Copenhagen, but for their Jews. (Historical fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: April 1, 1989
ISBN: 0547577095
Page Count: 156
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: Oct. 17, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1989
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