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FINDING HOME

Surprisingly heartwarming.

The survivors of a violent crime test the limits of their new foster family in this story set in England.

Fifteen-year-old footballer and bad-boy Leo and his younger, hearing-impaired sister, Lila, both white, witnessed and barely survived the murder of their mother and burning of their home by their stepfather. As their new foster family in a town nearby, all of the Poultons, including their two adopted children, try their best to make the transition as easy as possible for Leo and Lila. Lila immediately gloms onto her new family. Leo, however, is expectedly rebellious, snide and flirting with danger. The giant burn scar on his arm constantly makes him ill, and it’s clear to readers that he most likely is experiencing PTSD. Meanwhile, Charlie, also 15 and adopted from an orphanage in Brazil when he was 2, immediately takes a liking to Leo. Soon the two crush on each other and illicitly make out in Charlie’s bedroom. A predictable act of violence ensues, which threatens Leo and Lila’s ability to stay together. Leigh’s prose is fairly straightforward, wrought with psychological and emotional drama that teeters on the brink of becoming too much. The lovable secondary characters, including Charlie’s older brother Andy and sassy, goth-chic sister Fliss, bring humanity and hilarity to the narrative. Though readers of edgier teen fiction may find the novel fairly tame, others will be charmed by the warmth of the Poulton family and the bad-boy sensibility of Leo.

Surprisingly heartwarming. (Fiction. 12-17)

Pub Date: Oct. 9, 2017

ISBN: 978-1-62649-602-6

Page Count: 178

Publisher: Riptide

Review Posted Online: Sept. 17, 2017

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2017

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BLOOD RUNNER

This potentially inspiring tale staggers along under the weight of a worthy agenda.

A general indictment of apartheid is thinly wrapped in a tale about a young Zulu marathoner who runs for his country in the Olympics.

When police fire into a crowd watching a peaceful demonstration, they orphan young Samuel and his two older brothers, radicalizing the latter. In later years one brother loses his mind on Robben Island, and the other is killed in a gun battle. Samuel, though, grows up to leverage his love of running barefoot over his dusty tribal “homeland” into a spot on South Africa’s Olympics team after apartheid collapses and Mandela is freed. Riordan loosely bases his disconnected main plot on the experiences of Josiah Thugwane, the first black gold medalist from South Africa. He begins his book with the graphically depicted opening massacre, closely followed by a disturbingly gruesome hospital scene. To these he adds angry rhetoric (“Where was British justice now?”) and ugly words when Samuel goes to get a passbook and later boards a “Whites Only” train car by mistake. For readers who still aren't with the program, he provides infodumps about South Africa’s racial history and the African National Congress and a triumphant set piece when Samuel casts a vote in his first national election. Samuel runs (and wins) the climactic race with a letter from Mandela tucked in his shoe.

This potentially inspiring tale staggers along under the weight of a worthy agenda. (afterword) (Historical fiction. 12-14)

Pub Date: May 1, 2012

ISBN: 978-1-84507-934-5

Page Count: 176

Publisher: Frances Lincoln

Review Posted Online: March 13, 2012

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2012

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THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ME

Though the footnotes feel gimmicky and distracting, readers will likely be able to look past them (or just skip over them)...

Cleverly woven through the titular encyclopedia—with entries as seemingly mundane as “Apple” and “Oxen”—is the touchingly real and often humorous story of a preteen’s struggles with family, friendship and first love.

Isadora “Tink” Aaron-Martin, nearly 13, means to make the most of her recent grounding by using her time on house arrest to write an encyclopedia, heavily annotated with footnotes. Frustrated by her reputation as the peacemaker, Tink’s entries about life with an autistic brother are fresh and painfully honest. Rivers doesn’t tiptoe around the destructive impact the syndrome can have on a family. Rather, through Tink, she explores what it’s like to grow up in a house where everyone is constantly walking on eggshells, waiting for the next violent outburst. But family isn’t the only place where Tink feels invisible. She also walks in the shadow of her “best friend,” Freddie Blue Anderson, who seems to care more about being “pops” (popular) than about Tink. It isn’t until a blue-haired skateboarder named Kai moves in next door that she gradually finds the strength to put herself first, both at home and at school. 

Though the footnotes feel gimmicky and distracting, readers will likely be able to look past them (or just skip over them) and cheer for Tink as she comes into her own. (Fiction. 12-14)

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2012

ISBN: 978-0-545-31028-4

Page Count: 256

Publisher: Levine/Scholastic

Review Posted Online: July 17, 2012

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2012

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