A laugh-out-loud comic novel that’s also psychologically astute about the inner lives of teenage boys.
Hijinks ensue at summer camp when teenagers compete for a coveted prize in this humorous YA novel.
Over the last two years, narrator Do-Over and his pals Uncle Ruckus and Turbo Cakes have forged a close friendship at Camp Winnebago, their Adventure Ranger summer camp. Now, in June 2015, the 15-year-olds are expecting a great time as they arrive to join the rest of Troop 99. Every Troop hopes to win the Golden Plunger; it’s always been a symbolic achievement, but this year, a real prize is attached. Good behavior is essential to win, which is a challenge for the screw-up prone Troop 99. Turbo and Uncle Ruckus get into several kinds of serious trouble almost immediately and are blamed for the return of the Wafflestomper, notorious in past summers for clogging the showers with excrement. Still, the friends manage to show a new and utterly clueless camper the ropes while plotting the downfall of militaristic Troop 100 and pursuing schemes like Uncle Ruckus’ moneymaking plan (involving chocolate laxatives and a hoard of premium toilet paper). If Troop 99 can win the Golden Plunger, maybe this will be, as Do-Over hopes, the best summer of their lives. In his debut novel, Dickert nails that particular summer-camp combination of earnestness and anarchy. Hilarious scenes include a painful video where a young Ranger urges: “Let’s keep our souls and showers clean! Take the masturbation abstinence pledge today, and sign the Can’t Come at Camp Contract!” Beyond the humor, the novel also explores characters’ backgrounds in third-person flashbacks that explain their nicknames and sensitively illuminate their personalities, conflicts, and hopes for the future. Do-Over, for example, feels ignored by his sickly parents and has anger-management problems he constantly struggles to control.
A laugh-out-loud comic novel that’s also psychologically astute about the inner lives of teenage boys.Pub Date: June 1, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-73604-061-4
Page Count: 316
Publisher: Campfire Publishing LLC
Review Posted Online: April 29, 2021
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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