Growing up with a covert operative for a father, 13-year-old Cody Saron is prepared for almost anything that comes his way. Now living in a small Connecticut town after narrowly avoiding an assassin’s bomb, Cody may not be so lucky in the halls of his new middle school. Instead of focusing on the rather standard “out of his element” plot, Logsted knows that the best way to draw readers in is with action, and the pages are packed with karate and midnight excursions. Cody has an older foil, Andy, a discharged Army Ranger who lost an arm in Iraq, and the two characters bond over post-traumatic dtress disorder and the challenges of adapting to civilian life. Highly educated and socially awkward, Cody has confrontations with his teachers that will resonate with readers of all backgrounds. A convoluted resolution is mostly lost in the action-packed conclusion, but with guns, kicks and silencers, it’s not really important. Funny and fast paced, this fits right in with the beach-read crowd. (Fiction. 10-14)
Pub Date: June 23, 2009
ISBN: 978-1-4169-7959-3
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2009
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Revisiting characters from The Cook’s Family (1998), Yep again explores personal and cultural conflicts arising between the generations in a Chinese-American family. Suddenly saddled with caring for four younger siblings after a wealthy businessman hires her widowed mother as a governess—or amah—for his daughter, Stephanie, Amy Chin is forced to miss several ballet rehearsals for Cinderella, to listen to glowing accounts of Stephanie’s sophistication, and to accept expensive clothing and other gifts from her. While gaining new insight into how Cinderella’s stepsisters must have felt, Amy’s understandable resentment is compounded by the news that Stephanie will be moving in while her father is away on a trip. Yep builds that feeling to fever pitch, then dispels it by casting Stephanie as a lonely child hurt by one parent’s death and the other’s neglect; becoming friends, Stephanie and Amy clear the air and mend some fences with their well-meaning parents in a climactic face-off. The characters, most of them familiar from previous appearances, are distinct if not particularly complex, the San Francisco setting is vividly drawn, and the issues are laid out in plain terms and tidily resolved. It’s formulaic, but not entirely superficial. (Fiction. 10-13)
Pub Date: June 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-399-23040-8
Page Count: 184
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 1999
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Twelve-year-old Henrietta Hornbuckle was born into Filbert’s Traveling Clown Circus and is determined to stay a clown forever. She’s never stepped inside a house or school, and she never wants her life of constant change to, well, change: “Hers was an existence of freedom and movement. Who had it better than that?” Henrietta’s security lies in her doting parents’ love, especially that of her father, who, at 4 feet 3 inches tall, is her mirror—both character-wise and in clown routines. When he is killed by a car on Long Island one night, Henrietta is numb, disbelieving. The clean, engaging third-person narration and rapid-fire dialogue distinguish this artfully concise novel about the inevitability of change, for better or worse. Not only is the straight-shooting style an interesting contrast to the colorful circus backdrop, it echoes Henrietta’s endearingly blunt manner and stubborn nature. What will win out: stability, in the form of an offer of money and housing extended by Henrietta’s wealthy Aunt Carlotta, or the promise of the unknown? One thing’s for sure: The show must go on! (Fiction. 10-14)
Pub Date: May 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-374-33513-7
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Jan. 18, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2010
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