A satisfying tale of bullying redemption with a STEM twist.
What do you do when the school bully is also the principal’s son?
For fifth grader Bell Kirby, the answer involves devising many systems and routes to help him avoid crossing paths with the bully, Parker Hellickson. He keeps them all in the notebook that’s never far from his arms. And he’s had plenty of time to work these systems out—Parker has been bullying him since the beginning of fourth grade, ever since Bell accidentally broke Parker’s toe and kept him out of a soccer tournament. Bell’s systems mostly work—until Daelynn Gower, a former home-schooler with multicolored hair, moves to town. Daelynn refuses to change herself to avoid trouble, and she soon becomes a target. But when Parker expects Bell to join in on the torment, Bell has a choice to make. Does he play it safe, or does he join with his real friends in standing up to Parker and proving to everyone, even the principal, that Parker is a bully? Gracefully folded into this tale are themes of friendship, accountability, engineering, and cooperation, and there is even a discussion on what life was like for Leonardo da Vinci. Even with a wide range of topics, Burt keeps the plot lively and focused as the very believable kids work to solve their own problems through both empathy and logic. The book adheres to the white default, with one of Bell’s friends described as having dark skin and another with an Asian name.
A satisfying tale of bullying redemption with a STEM twist. (Fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-16864-1
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
An endearing protagonist runs the first, fast leg of Reynolds' promising relay.
Castle “Ghost” Cranshaw feels like he’s been running ever since his dad pulled that gun on him and his mom—and used it.
His dad’s been in jail three years now, but Ghost still feels the trauma, which is probably at the root of the many “altercations” he gets into at middle school. When he inserts himself into a practice for a local elite track team, the Defenders, he’s fast enough that the hard-as-nails coach decides to put him on the team. Ghost is surprised to find himself caring enough about being on the team that he curbs his behavior to avoid “altercations.” But Ma doesn’t have money to spare on things like fancy running shoes, so Ghost shoplifts a pair that make his feet feel impossibly light—and his conscience correspondingly heavy. Ghost’s narration is candid and colloquial, reminiscent of such original voices as Bud Caldwell and Joey Pigza; his level of self-understanding is both believably childlike and disarming in its perception. He is self-focused enough that secondary characters initially feel one-dimensional, Coach in particular, but as he gets to know them better, so do readers, in a way that unfolds naturally and pleasingly. His three fellow “newbies” on the Defenders await their turns to star in subsequent series outings. Characters are black by default; those few white people in Ghost’s world are described as such.
An endearing protagonist runs the first, fast leg of Reynolds' promising relay. (Fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Aug. 30, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4814-5015-7
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Caitlyn Dlouhy/Atheneum
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2016
PROFILES
SEEN & HEARD
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
BOOK TO SCREEN
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