Accessible, helpful advice for young people seeking their purpose.
A rallying cry for teens seeking greater fulfillment.
García and Miralles, Spanish co-authors of The Ikigai Journey (2020) and similar adult titles rooted in Japanese culture, here extend their reach to teenagers. They begin by explaining that the Japanese term ikigai refers to larger goals that give one’s life purpose and meaning. Here it is applied to advise young people in many areas of their lives, including school, friendship, romantic relationships, and potential careers. Quotes from and brief descriptions of varied individuals from Jules Verne and Tony Hawk to Malala Yousafzai support lists of tips and ideas for putting ikigai into practice. Writing prompts are interspersed with vignettes describing a journey of self-discovery that includes collecting medallions from wise individuals that, when combined, point the way to discovering your ikigai. There is plenty of good advice, much of it familiar but no less reassuring to young people who may feel pressure to have everything figured out. For example, the authors remind readers that they can learn from failure and recount the 10,000-hour rule popularized by Malcolm Gladwell. Those hoping for insights into ikigai from a Japanese perspective will be disappointed, as the book contains relatively little content about Japan—both authors, however, have personal experience of the country. References and further reading would have been helpful for those hoping to learn more about subjects raised in the book.
Accessible, helpful advice for young people seeking their purpose. (Nonfiction. 12-18)Pub Date: April 20, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-338-67083-7
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Jan. 25, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2021
Cathartic and uplifting.
The experiences of watching a mother succumb to cancer and grieving her death are explored with honesty and compassion.
Feder (illustrator: Unladylike, 2018), the oldest of three sisters in a close-knit Jewish family, grew up with an artistic, spirited, playful, and affectionate mother, someone whose high spirits were the perfect foil for her daughter’s anxious personality. The summer after Feder’s freshman year of college, her mother was diagnosed with cancer, dying in the spring of Feder’s sophomore year. This vulnerable memoir is a tribute to a beloved woman as well as a meditation on losing a parent when one is on the cusp of adulthood. Much like grief itself, the book careens from deep despair to humor to poignancy, fear, remorse, and anger, mirroring the emotional disorientation that comes with such a significant death. By sharing many particulars about her mother—the foods she loved and hated, the silly in-jokes, her endearing (and annoying) quirks—Feder personalizes her loss in a way that will resonate with members of the “Dead Moms Club,” with whom she describes having an immediate bond. Readers who have not experienced deep grief will learn from the missteps of well-intentioned friends and acquaintances. The pastel-toned illustrations effectively convey Feder’s youth and the intensity of her emotions while emphasizing the ultimate message of survival and resilience in the face of life-changing grief.
Cathartic and uplifting. (Graphic memoir. 12-adult)Pub Date: April 14, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-525-55302-1
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: Jan. 6, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
This is clearly not unbiased reporting, but it makes a strong case that justice in our legal system does not always fit the...
Porinchak recounts how the legal system fails five teens who commit a serious crime.
The May 22, 1995, brawl in a white suburb of Los Angeles that resulted in the death of one teen and the injury of another is related matter-of-factly. The account of the police investigation, the judicial process, and the ultimate incarceration of the five boys is more passionately argued. Since the story focuses on the teens’ experiences following the brawl, minimal attention is given to Jimmy Farris, who died, although the testimony of Mike McLoren, who survived, is crucial. The book opens with a comprehensive dramatis personae that will help orient readers, and the text is liberally punctuated by quotes drawn from contemporary newspaper and magazine coverage as well as interviews with several of the key figures, including three of the accused. Porinchak argues that the proceedings were influenced by the high-profile 1994 trial and acquittal of the Menendez brothers, and unfounded accusations of gang involvement further clouded the matter. Despite the journalistic style, there is clear intent to elicit sympathy for the five boys involved, three of whom were sentenced to life without parole; of two, the text remarks that “they were numbers now, not humans.”
This is clearly not unbiased reporting, but it makes a strong case that justice in our legal system does not always fit the crime. (Nonfiction. 14-18)Pub Date: May 2, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4814-8132-8
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Simon Pulse/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2017
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