Despite its apparent desire to be all things to all people, this is, in the end, an uplifting story.
A story of renewal and belonging that succeeds despite, not because of, its contrivances.
Twelve-year-old genius Willow Chance was adopted as an infant by her “so white” parents (Willow is mixed race) and loses them both in one afternoon in a convenient (plotwise) car accident. Outside of her parents, she has a hard time making friends since her mishmash of (also convenient, plotwise) interests—disease, plants and the number seven—doesn’t appeal to her fellow middle-grade students. Losing her parents propels her on her hero’s-journey quest to find belonging. Along the way, her fate intertwines with those of a confident high school girl named Mai and her surly brother, Quang-ha; their energetic, manicure-salon–owning mother, Pattie (formerly Dung); Jairo Hernandez, a taxi driver with an existential crisis; and a failure of a school counselor named Dell Duke. With these characters’ ages running the gamut from 12 to high school to mid-30s and their voices included in a concurrent third-person narration along with Willow’s precise, unemotional first-person narration, readers may well have a hard time engaging. Relying heavily on serendipity—a technique that only adds, alas, to the “leave no stone unturned” feeling of the story—the plot resolves in a bright and heartfelt, if predictable conclusion.
Despite its apparent desire to be all things to all people, this is, in the end, an uplifting story. (Fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Aug. 29, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-8037-3855-3
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: June 25, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2013
Another chortleworthy outing from Korman. (Fiction. 10-14)
In the sequel to Ungifted (2012), Noah Youkilis gets himself kicked out of the Academy for Scholastic Distinction to see what it’s like at regular middle school.
Noah’s best friend, Donovan Curtis, can’t understand why such a genius would come to Hardcastle Middle School on purpose. He would be a target, a “wedgie looking for a place to happen.” Noah is 4 feet 11 inches tall, the size of a fourth-grader, with the posture of an ”oversize praying mantis.” He has a 200-plus IQ, a grating voice, and a “rocket-scientist vocabulary.” But Noah feels that “being a genius isn’t hard.…What’s hard is being normal.” He’s never had to work to get grades before, so now he goes out of his way to pick activities he’s bad at so he can improve at something, such as wood shop and cheerleading. But when Donovan saves a runaway truck from crashing into Megan Mercury’s house, Noah takes credit for the heroic feat and nearly loses Donovan as a friend. As in Ungifted, Korman uses multiple first-person points of view to reveal characters’ responses to Noah and to show how characters change when supergifted Noah becomes superhero Noah. The narrative moves swiftly and even becomes madcap toward the end as Donovan regains a friendship and becomes a hero in his own right. Characters are white by default.
Another chortleworthy outing from Korman. (Fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: April 3, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-06-256384-2
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Jan. 21, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2018
Funny, sure-handed, wise.
Carl tries to change his father’s frugal behavior over the course of a summer.
Narrator Carl, 12, believes that his problem is his relentlessly optimistic, handy dad, who sees their life in a small trailer with pigs (fed partly from dumpster forays), chickens, and a garden as rich and full. But Carl’s heart has been captured from afar, and he believes that being noticed will take an improved kind of being “lookatable.” Carl’s father regards money as stored human energy (and therefore sees energy as a kind of currency)—he “leans well into the concept of being practical and has never been one to honor the cosmetic side of things” and is an accomplished barterer who can’t pass up a garage sale. Carl’s pink, feminine overalls come from a garage sale, and his too-small underwear hails from another bargain source. Carl’s garrulous, singularly imaginative sidekick Pooder (he “has made tangents an art form”) offers color commentary, advice, comic relief, and perspective by turns. Carl takes inspiration from a pamphlet on puppy training in his plan to reward good behavior and ignore less desirable (as in dumpster diving for shoes) in his dad. The tall-tale, anecdotal quality of Carl’s story is entertaining with its recitation of disastrous, smelly, embarrassing, dangerous, and misguided moments. Both father and son turn out to be likable heroes. Characters are assumed White.
Funny, sure-handed, wise. (Fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Oct. 5, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-374-31417-0
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2021
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