Characters to love, quips to snort at, insights to ponder: typical Spinelli.
For two teenagers, a small town’s annual cautionary ritual becomes both a life- and a death-changing experience.
On the second Wednesday in June, every eighth grader in Amber Springs, Pennsylvania, gets a black shirt, the name and picture of a teen killed the previous year through reckless behavior—and the silent treatment from everyone in town. Like many of his classmates, shy, self-conscious Robbie “Worm” Tarnauer has been looking forward to Dead Wed as a day for cutting loose rather than sober reflection…until he finds himself talking to a strange girl or, as she would have it, “spectral maiden,” only he can see or touch. Becca Finch is as surprised and confused as Worm, only remembering losing control of her car on an icy slope that past Christmas Eve. But being (or having been, anyway) a more outgoing sort, she sees their encounter as a sign that she’s got a mission. What follows, in a long conversational ramble through town and beyond, is a day at once ordinary yet rich in discovery and self-discovery—not just for Worm, but for Becca too, with a climactic twist that leaves both ready, or readier, for whatever may come next. Spinelli shines at setting a tongue-in-cheek tone for a tale with serious underpinnings, and as in Stargirl (2000), readers will be swept into the relationship that develops between this adolescent odd couple. Characters follow a White default.
Characters to love, quips to snort at, insights to ponder: typical Spinelli. (Fiction. 12-15)Pub Date: Aug. 3, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-30667-3
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 31, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2021
For fans who can’t be persuaded to read something better.
Now that Nomad the supermutant has left a seed of power in Jack, will his growing superpowers be enough to save his family and what’s left of post-apocalyptic London?
In a London devastated by the release of Evolve, a chemical that killed most of the population but gave amazing powers to the survivors, Jack, Jenna and Sparky try to find Jack’s father, the deadly mutant Reaper, in order to enlist his help in rescuing the rest of Jack’s family from the clutches of Miller and his Choppers. Meanwhile, Jack’s friend Lucy-Anne searches for her lost brother by trekking through the dangerous streets of the city with Rook, a troubled boy who can control flocks of birds. Jack unites the Irregulars (survivors with weaker powers) with the Superiors (his father’s powerful minions) in an assault on Camp H, the holding facility where mutants are dissected when captured by Miller. Will they succeed? And will all be destroyed if Lucy-Anne and Nomad meet? They’ve both dreamed destruction. As with the first in his post-apocalyptic, near-future series, Lebbon wastes some intriguing worldbuilding on superficial characters who have a near-total lack of discernible motivation. What could have been brainless fun is further hobbled by amorphous “powers” and logic-defying plot devices (the government’s fail-safe is a nuclear bomb under London? That’s going to save the country from the mutants?).
For fans who can’t be persuaded to read something better. (Post-apocalyptic adventure. 12-14)Pub Date: April 2, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-61614-767-9
Page Count: 234
Publisher: Pyr/Prometheus Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 26, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2013
Warmhearted and easy to read, despite some flaws.
Three close friends, one of them African-American, one Hispanic and one mixed-race, begin their freshman year at Texas’ Port City High in an accessible, if occasionally clunky, series opener.
Chapters are simple and short, and each girl has a defined storyline. Brandi gets involved with an older boy who pressures her sexually from almost the first date. Marisa is dismayed to discover she has feelings for Brandi’s ex-boyfriend. Shane, who has been trying to break herself of the habit of smoking weed, is given Adderall by a friend and spirals into addiction with exaggerated swiftness. Chapters cycle among the three girls’ points of view, though occasionally a minor character’s point of view slips in, which is somewhat distracting. Despite some conflicts, the girls support each other, whether by talking through boy troubles or by choosing to wear matching purity rings. Some elements of the storytelling, however, are shaky: Vocabulary is not always carefully chosen (“ ‘Well?’ Brandi stated when the girls sat down”), and some Spanish words and phrases are written incorrectly. The narrative frequently describes to readers how the girls are feeling, which makes the action easy to follow but sometimes seems redundant.
Warmhearted and easy to read, despite some flaws. (Fiction. 12-14)Pub Date: July 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-62250-037-6
Page Count: 200
Publisher: Saddleback Educational Publishing
Review Posted Online: April 30, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2013
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