To be popular with the “princesses” in her Australian elementary school is not Jillian’s destiny, especially with King-Nerd Nigel and the rest of the “misfits” tagging along. Then to top it off, her teacher reads her daily journal and makes unexpected suggestions about her writing skills—isn’t a diary private?—and unexpected commentary about her life—is there no end to mortification? To be in the thick of things, Jillian tries to be lovely and smart, and then as the pièce de résistance, organizes a party and invites everyone. When even that isn’t enough, she refocuses her life to help that rag-tag group who’ve become her bosom buds with what she can do—read and write, and infect their life with excitement. In the middle of her efforts, her own writing grows from a stunted ramble to the heartfelt record of her fifth year at Flora Heights Primary School. There she exemplifies to her true friends how to handle being chosen last in sports, and “the slings and arrows” of life, with grace. Green injects plenty of humor and turns Jillian’s diary into a meaningful creative training ground for winning a prestigious speaking competition, as well as a turning point for the future of those less able. The writing is lively and fun, a humorous adventure in growing up among Australian schoolmates, family and friends. A mighty inspiring debut. (Fiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2007
ISBN: 1-58089-166-7
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Charlesbridge
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2007
A typical Patterson plot significantly elevated by its title character.
A precocious seventh-grader tries to turn over a new leaf and end her term as the class clown.
It’s New Jersey, 1990, and Jacky Hart is the middle child in a family with six other girls. Attention is hard to come by, but Jacky has earned her fair share by being the endlessly funny member of her large, white family. Unfortunately, Jacky’s teachers do not appreciate this goofball attitude. Jacky joins the school play to channel her talents creatively and discovers a passion for performing, but not all is well. Jacky's mother is overseas as a citizen soldier in the run-up to the first Gulf War, and her lifeguard father is spending way too much time with an attractive female fellow lifeguard. A lot of other things happen too, but this is typical for Patterson. His novels are made or broken not by their plots but by their lead characters, and Jacky is the best yet. Fun, smart, emotionally engaging, Jacky is a character that young readers will love spending time with. Sure, the novel could lose about 100 pages and still tell the same story, but Jacky and her sisters are so endearing readers won't feel the effects of the chubby second and third acts until long after finishing the book, and few will really care. Pop-culture references from the ’90s and the 2010s (for comparison) abound.
A typical Patterson plot significantly elevated by its title character. (Historical fiction. 10-12)Pub Date: March 21, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-316-26249-1
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2016
However tried and true, the Harry Potter–esque elements and set pieces don’t keep this cumbersome coming-of-age tale afloat,...
Full-blown middle-volume-itis leaves this continuation of the tale of a teenage elf who has been genetically modified for so-far undisclosed purposes dead in the water.
As the page count burgeons, significant plot developments slow to a trickle. Thirteen-year-old Sophie manifests yet more magical powers while going head-to-head with hostile members of the Lost Cities Council and her own adoptive elvin father, Grady, over whether the clandestine Black Swan cabal, her apparent creators and (in the previous episode) kidnappers, are allies or enemies. Messenger tries to lighten the tone by dressing Sophie and her classmates at the Hogwarts-ian Foxfire Academy as mastodons for a silly opening ceremony and by having her care for an alicorn—a winged unicorn so magnificent that even its poop sparkles. It’s not enough; two sad memorial services, a trip to a dreary underground prison, a rash of adult characters succumbing to mental breakdowns and a frequently weepy protagonist who is increasingly shunned as “the girl who was taken” give the tale a soggy texture. Also, despite several cryptic clues and a late attack by hooded figures, neither the identity nor the agenda of the Black Swan comes closer to being revealed.
However tried and true, the Harry Potter–esque elements and set pieces don’t keep this cumbersome coming-of-age tale afloat, much less under way. (Fantasy 10-12)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4424-4596-3
Page Count: 576
Publisher: Simon Pulse/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: July 16, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2013
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