A sweet reminder that being a middle school girl is about far more than boys and makeup.
When your best friend lives on the other side of the world, it can be hard to stay best friends.
When Liv comes back to town to visit, Ana's sure everything will go back to the way it was before Liv moved, and they will be as close as ever. Unfortunately, they've both changed far too much for that to happen. Ana is no longer horribly shy and in constant battle with Ashley; in fact, they're good friends. And Liv has purple hair and a new friend in New Zealand that she insists on texting, even when she and Ana are hanging out. Can the two overcome the distance they've traveled and create a new, stronger friendship out of the remnants of the old one? Keating's sharp focus is on one of the most crucial relationships of a 13-year-old's life: friendships. With her trademark kid-oriented wit and lighthearted touch, Keating leads readers through the daily emotional ups and downs of the typical just-turned-teenager who is trying to juggle hormones, parents, schoolwork, and, most importantly, her friends. Ana’s voice is refreshingly distinct: “It was actually sort of nice not to think about how I looked, unlike in school where I felt like we were all walking some pretend runway.”
A sweet reminder that being a middle school girl is about far more than boys and makeup. (Fiction. 9-13)Pub Date: Oct. 6, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4926-1794-5
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
McCaughrean maintains the dizzyingly high standards of The Golden Hoard (1996) and its sequels with this thematic collection of sky myths and legends. Associated with cultures as diverse as Ancient Rome and the Cook Islands, the 15 tales explain, among other things, rainbows, thunder, falling stars, the origin of night, and why the sun and moon live far apart. Whether love stories, tragedies, accounts of heroic deeds or trickster tales, all are likely to be new to young readers, even those as widely told as “Orion’s Downfall” and the Chinese “Bridge of Magpies.” McCaughrean retells them with characteristic vigor: “With sulfur from the hot springs, with magma from the volcanoes, [the gods] fashioned a foe to send against Orion: an insect that wore its skeleton on the outside for armor, a creature the color of rage and venom . . .” Williams’s indistinct, ordinary-looking figures seldom capture the tales’ drama, and while McCaughrean closes with comments on each story, there are no specific source notes. Still, this extends the scope of such Native American gatherings as Gretchen Mayo’s Star Tales (1987), and readers will be captivated by the range of visions here. (Folktales. 9-12)
Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-689-83015-7
Page Count: 112
Publisher: McElderry
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2000
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
In a time not so far from now but within the universe of the Dragon Chronicles, 14-year-old Bryn misses her scientist mom, who has disappeared in Alaska. Her dad has gone searching for her, leaving Bryn with her aunt and her little sister. But an odd sound coming from boxes of her mother’s materials in the basement leads Bryn to a leathery egg—and the hatching of a small, hungry lizard. With wings. The story turns to Tal, who was Bryn’s mother’s research assistant, and to Josh, who makes a living finding fossils—and maybe other things. Pollution is endemic in this world, and swarms of animals and insects appear and vanish. Some teens use tattoos and skin grafts to mimic the appearance of the myriad cancer victims. Told in the first person by Bryn and in the third for Tal and Josh, the tale knits Internet searches, social networking, teenage friendships and ecosphere studies together with an utterly engaging baby dragon. Bryn’s family’s ties to winged creatures and their passion for scientific learning are delineated with swift precision and nuanced emotion. (Fantasy. 9-12)
Pub Date: Sept. 21, 2010
ISBN: 970-1-4169-5786-7
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: Jan. 8, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2010
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