A struggling but charming protagonist distinguishes this touching story.
In Eppley’s middle-grade novel, a bullied Milwaukee boy with a neurological disorder brightens lives with his delightful humor.
Most people can’t tell when seventh-grader Jackson is happy. He can’t smile or even move his eyes side-to-side because of Moebius Syndrome, a rare condition that causes facial paralysis. He loves telling jokes, much like his father, a popular standup comedian who left the family years ago. Jackson mostly keeps to himself while his best friend, Ethan, keeps the bullies at bay. He and Ethan plan to break a world record involving a bouncing basketball. Then Covid-19 hits; by the time eighth grade rolls around, he’s behind a face mask at a new school and making his classmates laugh uproariously. He also catches the attention of a girl he likes. But what will happen when his mask comes off? Will everyone see the same “blank face” that has caused so many others to treat him differently? Eppley’s exuberant narrative, which is written in free verse, hops excitedly from one situation to the next. Jackson confronts endless hurdles, including a reunion with his estranged dad, who has startling news for the family. The story tackles the boy’s condition frankly—one bully relentlessly mocks his drooping lip, and Jackson constantly worries that he’s the topic of people’s whispers. Comedy nevertheless takes center stage, and Jackson delivers all sorts—puns, knock-knock jokes, and lowbrow humor—that send others into fits of laughter, including Ethan, a familiar face at Jackson’s new school, and Jackson’s little sister, Maisie, whose giggles never stop (“Tell me jokes, Jackson, pleeeeeeease”). Although Jackson’s condition is rare, his plight is relatable as he learns about the ways in which people of various races, body shapes, and sexual orientations battle mistreatment and disrespect.
A struggling but charming protagonist distinguishes this touching story.Pub Date: Nov. 18, 2025
ISBN: 9781645385851
Page Count: 292
Publisher: Orange Hat Publishing
Review Posted Online: Oct. 22, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2025
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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