A well-written, absorbing martial arts tale best suited for older YA audiences.
In this YA martial arts adventure, a boy in a remote temple trains for greatness while unaware of his family’s true nature.
Eleven-year-old Apollo Salvatoir lives in San Francisco. His father, William, is a successful businessman while his mother, Tayleigh, died in a car accident two months ago. Apollo loves gymnastics and his best friend, 11-year-old Tan Ling. When classes at Willoughby’s Academy break for the summer, Apollo’s busy father allows his cruel assistant and lover, Jamie Plover, to care for his son. The physically abusive woman calls Apollo “nothing but a dog.” Apollo and Ling eventually film Jamie’s abuse with a cellphone to expose her. But Jamie catches them, spoiling the plan and triggering Apollo’s transfer to an “exclusive private school” in rural China. At the strange school, the other children wear color-coded robes and treat Apollo like an inconsequential gerbil. Apollo soon comes under the tutelage of the instructor Shīfŭ Hui, who tells him: “The feet of a dragon stand firm against evil, walking toward and never away from duty.” Meanwhile, Ling, whose father, Tan Far, considers her an embarrassment, sends her to the Chinese village of Xitanxiang, where she’ll attend school. Ling and Apollo soon become trapped in a familial rivalry between two martial arts sects: the White Dragons and the Black Dragons. Bertoch gives YA and advanced middle-grade readers a well-crafted, unvarnished adventure that follows the chosen one format. Chapters begin with paragraphs of wisdom from The Book of the Wyvern Spirits, explaining the humble beginnings of the legendary figure that Apollo will become, Shā-Shŭ, and including inspirational passages like “Each of us has a role to play, and the world is better when we reach without fear toward it.” Apollo is a great role model for readers, as he helps the aging Lanfen in the school’s kitchen. The abuse he suffers is graphic, as when Jamie strikes “Apollo across the chest.” While other YA fare might include fanciful elements like magic to balance harsher themes, the author forgoes anything that might soften his message of braving a dangerous world. Finding a new family is what saves Apollo.
A well-written, absorbing martial arts tale best suited for older YA audiences.Pub Date: March 3, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-946334-00-8
Page Count: 265
Publisher: Finny Wiggen Media
Review Posted Online: May 12, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An ode to the children of migrants who have been taken away.
A Mexican American boy takes on heavy responsibilities when his family is torn apart.
Mateo’s life is turned upside down the day U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents show up unsuccessfully seeking his Pa at his New York City bodega. The Garcias live in fear until the day both parents are picked up; his Pa is taken to jail and his Ma to a detention center. The adults around Mateo offer support to him and his 7-year-old sister, Sophie, however, he knows he is now responsible for caring for her and the bodega as well as trying to survive junior year—that is, if he wants to fulfill his dream to enter the drama program at the Tisch School of the Arts and become an actor. Mateo’s relationships with his friends Kimmie and Adam (a potential love interest) also suffer repercussions as he keeps his situation a secret. Kimmie is half Korean (her other half is unspecified) and Adam is Italian American; Mateo feels disconnected from them, less American, and with worries they can’t understand. He talks himself out of choosing a safer course of action, a decision that deepens the story. Mateo’s self-awareness and inner monologue at times make him seem older than 16, and, with significant turmoil in the main plot, some side elements feel underdeveloped. Aleman’s narrative joins the ranks of heart-wrenching stories of migrant families who have been separated.
An ode to the children of migrants who have been taken away. (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: May 4, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-7595-5605-8
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 22, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
This grittily provocative debut explores the horrors of self-harm and the healing power of artistic expression.
After surviving a suicide attempt, a fragile teen isn't sure she can endure without cutting herself.
Seventeen-year-old Charlie Davis, a white girl living on the margins, thinks she has little reason to live: her father drowned himself; her bereft and abusive mother kicked her out; her best friend, Ellis, is nearly brain dead after cutting too deeply; and she's gone through unspeakable experiences living on the street. After spending time in treatment with other young women like her—who cut, burn, poke, and otherwise hurt themselves—Charlie is released and takes a bus from the Twin Cities to Tucson to be closer to Mikey, a boy she "like-likes" but who had pined for Ellis instead. But things don't go as planned in the Arizona desert, because sweet Mikey just wants to be friends. Feeling rejected, Charlie, an artist, is drawn into a destructive new relationship with her sexy older co-worker, a "semifamous" local musician who's obviously a junkie alcoholic. Through intense, diarylike chapters chronicling Charlie's journey, the author captures the brutal and heartbreaking way "girls who write their pain on their bodies" scar and mar themselves, either succumbing or surviving. Like most issue books, this is not an easy read, but it's poignant and transcendent as Charlie breaks more and more before piecing herself back together.
This grittily provocative debut explores the horrors of self-harm and the healing power of artistic expression. (author’s note) (Fiction. 14 & up)Pub Date: Aug. 30, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-101-93471-5
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2016
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