A book that manages to outpace its protagonist in mediocrity—skip it.
A 13-year-old budding artist struggles to join a popular clique when sudden superpowers derail her plans.
Veronica McGowan, a mixed race (black/white), hopelessly average seventh-grader, wants nothing more than to be included in the most popular group in her middle school: the “Ests.” With such slots as “Richest,” “Smartest,” and “Funniest” already taken, Veri hopes to join as the “Artiest” by volunteering to decorate the spring formal; that is, if she can outmaneuver her archrival and previous holder of the title and not get distracted by the reappearance of her crush. Veri’s plans to impress are somewhat less than successful when her already awkward life is suddenly complicated by an onslaught of superpowers—a generous label for embarrassing, emotion-specific phenomena such as angrily breathing fire, transforming into stone during guided meditation, or turning an envious shade of green. Veri tries to get her emotions under control before their new physical manifestations ruin her chances at popularity and humiliate her for life. While Nuhfer has delivered a new spin on the classic “girl almost loses herself (and best friend) in attempts to be popular” narrative, heavy-handed contrivances yield a stiff, inorganic plot and a listlike sequence of conflicts—even deceptive parents and conspiracy theorist government agents fail to raise the stakes for readers. Blocker’s occasional pencil sketches add some visual humor but do not elevate the whole.
A book that manages to outpace its protagonist in mediocrity—skip it. (Fantasy. 10-13)Pub Date: Jan. 23, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-250-13860-6
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Imprint
Review Posted Online: Oct. 27, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2017
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic.
Chainani works an elaborate sea change akin to Gregory Maguire’s Wicked (1995), though he leaves the waters muddied.
Every four years, two children, one regarded as particularly nice and the other particularly nasty, are snatched from the village of Gavaldon by the shadowy School Master to attend the divided titular school. Those who survive to graduate become major or minor characters in fairy tales. When it happens to sweet, Disney princess–like Sophie and her friend Agatha, plain of features, sour of disposition and low of self-esteem, they are both horrified to discover that they’ve been dropped not where they expect but at Evil and at Good respectively. Gradually—too gradually, as the author strings out hundreds of pages of Hogwarts-style pranks, classroom mishaps and competitions both academic and romantic—it becomes clear that the placement wasn’t a mistake at all. Growing into their true natures amid revelations and marked physical changes, the two spark escalating rivalry between the wings of the school. This leads up to a vicious climactic fight that sees Good and Evil repeatedly switching sides. At this point, readers are likely to feel suddenly left behind, as, thanks to summary deus ex machina resolutions, everything turns out swell(ish).
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic. (Fantasy. 11-13)Pub Date: May 14, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-06-210489-2
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2013
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BOOK TO SCREEN
Compulsively readable; morally uncomfortable.
Six New Jersey 12-year-olds separated by decades race to ensure the “good guys” win World War II in this middle-grade work by the author of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and her brother, a children's author and journalist.
It all starts with a ham radio that Alice, Lawrence, and Artie fool around with in 1944 and Henry, Frances, and Lukas find in 2023. It’s late April, and the 1944 kids worry about loved ones in combat, while the 2023 kids study the war in school. When, impossibly, the radio allows the kids to communicate across time, it doesn’t take long before they share information that changes history. Can the two sets of kids work across a 79-year divide to prevent the U.S.A. from becoming the Nazi-controlled dystopia of Westfallen? This propulsive thriller includes well-paced cuts between times that keep the pages turning. Like most people in their small New Jersey town, Alice, Artie, and Frances are white. In 1944, Lawrence, who’s Black, endures bigotry; in the U.S.A. of 2023, Henry’s biracial (white and Black) identity and Lukas’ Jewish one are unremarkable, but in Westfallen, Henry’s a “mischling” doing “work-learning,” and Lukas is a menial laborer. Alice’s and Henry’s dual first-person narration zooms in on the adventure, but readers who pull back may find themselves deeply uneasy with the summary consideration paid to the real-life fates of European Jews and disabled people. The cliffhanger ending will have them hoping for more thoughtful treatment in sequels to come.
Compulsively readable; morally uncomfortable. (Science fiction/thriller. 10-13)Pub Date: Sept. 17, 2024
ISBN: 9781665950817
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2024
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