Fourteen-year-old Simon is a British boy working through a lot of problems: a new stepmother, a new stepsister, a school bully and a girlfriend named Delfine who’s not as fine as a longed-for girl named Sky. And Sky’s the limit in this funny tale that ponders such major life issues as, “Have you ever wondered how things like marmalade were invented?” The writing is fast-paced and dialogue-driven, told in the wise-guy voice of an irreverent teenaged boy with plenty of references to farts, panties, legs, breasts and lip nibbling. A glossary is included for American readers unfamiliar with British terms such as gobwalloped, knickers, scarper, stonk and wozzer. Adding to the fun is Simon’s comic art (not all included in the galley), the graphic-novel component providing a great look into the fantasy life and mind of an artist as a young boy. In spite of the unfortunately silly title, here’s a British import that boys may devour just as girls have loved Louise Rennison’s Georgia Nicolson series. (Fiction. 12+)
Pub Date: March 1, 2007
ISBN: 0-06-084105-2
Page Count: 240
Publisher: HarperTempest
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2007
From the first page to the last, this compassionate, funny, moving, compulsively readable novel about what makes a family...
Placing her daughter for adoption left a hole in Grace’s heart; her adoptive parents can’t fill it, and her birth mother’s unreachable—then Grace learns she has siblings.
Maya, 15, a year younger than Grace, was adopted by wealthy parents 13 months before their biological daughter, Lauren, arrived. Joaquin, nearly 18, a survivor of 17 failed foster-care placements and one failed adoption, is troubled when his current foster parents express a wish to adopt him. Grace reaches out, and the siblings soon bond. All—Maya especially, standing out in a family of redheads—are grateful to meet others with dark hair (only Joaquin identifies not as white but Latino) and weird food preferences (French fries with mayo). Still, each keeps secrets. Maya discusses her girlfriend but not her mother’s secret drinking; Joaquin edits out his failed adoption; Grace, her pregnancy and daughter’s birth. It hurts that her siblings have zero interest in tracking down the mom who gave them away, yet Grace persists. Chapters alternate through their third-person perspectives, straightforward structure and syntax delivering accessibility without sacrificing nuance or complexity. Family issues are neither airbrushed nor oversimplified (as the ambiguous title suggests). These are multifaceted characters, shaped by upbringing as well as their genes, in complicated families. Absent birthparents matter, as do bio siblings: when their parents separate, Lauren fears Maya will abandon her for her “real” siblings.
From the first page to the last, this compassionate, funny, moving, compulsively readable novel about what makes a family gets it right. (Fiction. 13-18)Pub Date: Oct. 3, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-06-233062-8
Page Count: 384
Publisher: HarperTeen
Review Posted Online: Aug. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2017
An adventurous and romantic addition to the genre.
Lim blends “Beauty and the Beast” with Chinese folklore in her wondrous new tale set in the same world as her Six Crimson Cranes series.
After Baba, her father, is lost at sea, Truyan Saigas turns to art forgery to support her mother and two sisters. But Tru’s efforts to make ends meet aren’t enough, and gangsters threaten to take away her sisters if their mother’s gambling debts aren’t paid. When the authorities come to arrest Tru for her crimes, she escapes—and then encounters Elang, a cursed half-dragon, half-human prince. He offers a deal she can’t refuse: If she marries him and helps him dethrone his tyrannical grandfather, the Dragon King, he’ll ensure that she and her family are safe and debt-free and help her get answers to her father’s disappearance. After they’re officially bound in a loveless marriage, Tru enters Ai’long, a magical underwater realm where she’s guarded by turtles, befriends merfolk, and, with the aid of a hot-tempered water demon, masters her gift of Sight (an ability to see glimpses of the future) through painting. The inevitable romance is enhanced by a beautifully rendered subaqueous backdrop and beguiling folkloric elements. In this fantasy Chinese world, Tru’s blue hair is evidence of her Balardan heritage on her father’s side, a trait regarded as “a damning sight”; but being visibly different motivates her to be independent and self-loving.
An adventurous and romantic addition to the genre. (map) (Fantasy. 12-18)Pub Date: June 3, 2025
ISBN: 9780593650615
Page Count: 480
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
