Magnolia has a chance to dance her way out of her small, coastal Oregon town and into stardom on a reality TV show called Live to Dance.
Magnolia, an 18-year-old with “perfectly pecan color” skin, needs to get away from the shaming she and her white half sister, Rose, face because of their absent mother’s actions. Many of Summerland’s residents steer clear of them, even while they’re digging clams to make ends meet. Magnolia’s audition takes her to LA, where she’s plunged into a diverse cast of hopeful teens, all under the scrutiny of judges who pick them off one by one. Like Katniss and Peeta in The Hunger Games, the contestants are prepped by stylists to reveal their individual back stories: “You look perfect,” Magnolia’s assures her. “Raw. Wearing your own sores.” TV and internet viewers watch clips of the dancers’ reactions to being on the show and the interactions among them, along with weekly dance performances. The fast-paced story moves away from the theme of Magnolia’s love of dance and into a soap opera laced with betrayal, breakups and hookups, friendships lost and gained. Life lessons abound, as Magnolia’s dance instructor’s encouragement to “dig deeper” is reflected in Magnolia’s clam digging as a metaphor for escaping the psychological distress that holds her back from her dreams.
A lively and absorbing story with all the drama of teen life. (Fiction. 12-15)Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5107-0686-6
Page Count: 372
Publisher: Sky Pony Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 4, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2016
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A gripping thriller in dystopic future Los Angeles.
Fifteen-year-olds June and Day live completely different lives in the glorious Republic. June is rich and brilliant, the only candidate ever to get a perfect score in the Trials, and is destined for a glowing career in the military. She looks forward to the day when she can join up and fight the Republic’s treacherous enemies east of the Dakotas. Day, on the other hand, is an anonymous street rat, a slum child who failed his own Trial. He's also the Republic's most wanted criminal, prone to stealing from the rich and giving to the poor. When tragedies strike both their families, the two brilliant teens are thrown into direct opposition. In alternating first-person narratives, Day and June experience coming-of-age adventures in the midst of spying, theft and daredevil combat. Their voices are distinct and richly drawn, from Day’s self-deprecating affection for others to June's Holmesian attention to detail. All the flavor of a post-apocalyptic setting—plagues, class warfare, maniacal soldiers—escalates to greater complexity while leaving space for further worldbuilding in the sequel.
This is no didactic near-future warning of present evils, but a cinematic adventure featuring endearing, compelling heroes . (Science fiction. 12-14)Pub Date: Nov. 29, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-399-25675-2
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: April 8, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2011
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BOOK TO SCREEN
A harrowing tale of survival in the Killing Fields.
The childhood of Arn Chorn-Pond has been captured for young readers before, in Michelle Lord and Shino Arihara's picture book, A Song for Cambodia (2008). McCormick, known for issue-oriented realism, offers a fictionalized retelling of Chorn-Pond's youth for older readers. McCormick's version begins when the Khmer Rouge marches into 11-year-old Arn's Cambodian neighborhood and forces everyone into the country. Arn doesn't understand what the Khmer Rouge stands for; he only knows that over the next several years he and the other children shrink away on a handful of rice a day, while the corpses of adults pile ever higher in the mango grove. Arn does what he must to survive—and, wherever possible, to protect a small pocket of children and adults around him. Arn's chilling history pulls no punches, trusting its readers to cope with the reality of children forced to participate in murder, torture, sexual exploitation and genocide. This gut-wrenching tale is marred only by the author's choice to use broken English for both dialogue and description. Chorn-Pond, in real life, has spoken eloquently (and fluently) on the influence he's gained by learning English; this prose diminishes both his struggle and his story.
Though it lacks references or suggestions for further reading, Arn's agonizing story is compelling enough that many readers will seek out the history themselves. (preface, author's note) (Historical fiction. 12-15)Pub Date: May 8, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-06-173093-1
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: March 20, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2012
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