Thoughtfully recounts the challenges of growing up with an incarcerated parent.
Poet Castle’s father was first imprisoned for fraud when she was 12, leaving her burdened with a heavy secret.
Jiordan deals with the significant fallout of her father’s actions while also navigating the usual challenges of adolescence—starting high school, struggling with more advanced schoolwork, dating for the first time, and making sense of changing social dynamics. She must sell many of her most prized belongings when her family moves to a smaller house. Jiordan worries about her father’s physical safety and grapples with feelings of relief that she, her mother, and her older half sisters no longer have to contend with his pill-popping, suicidality, and cruelty. The author, who is white and Jewish, grew up on Long Island. She mentions in her author’s note that for years she sought books for kids whose parents were in prison but could not find them; she wrote this verse memoir to help fill that void. The abrupt ending will leave readers with many questions about Castle’s current relationship with her father, later pursuits, process of healing and making sense of her childhood, and more. However, her accessible poetry is appealing. The occasional use of blank lines in place of words asks readers to guess what she is trying to say, bringing them into the narrative in an interesting way. All in all, verse is an unusual and rewarding format for telling this story.
Thoughtfully recounts the challenges of growing up with an incarcerated parent. (Verse memoir. 12-18)Pub Date: Aug. 15, 2023
ISBN: 9780374389772
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: June 21, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2023
Small but mighty necessary reading.
A miniature manifesto for radical queer acceptance that weaves together the personal and political.
Eli, a cis gay white Jewish man, uses his own identities and experiences to frame and acknowledge his perspective. In the prologue, Eli compares the global Jewish community to the global queer community, noting, “We don’t always get it right, but the importance of showing up for other Jews has been carved into the DNA of what it means to be Jewish. It is my dream that queer people develop the same ideology—what I like to call a Global Queer Conscience.” He details his own isolating experiences as a queer adolescent in an Orthodox Jewish community and reflects on how he and so many others would have benefitted from a robust and supportive queer community. The rest of the book outlines 10 principles based on the belief that an expectation of mutual care and concern across various other dimensions of identity can be integrated into queer community values. Eli’s prose is clear, straightforward, and powerful. While he makes some choices that may be divisive—for example, using the initialism LGBTQIAA+ which includes “ally”—he always makes clear those are his personal choices and that the language is ever evolving.
Small but mighty necessary reading. (resources) (Nonfiction. 14-18)Pub Date: June 2, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-09368-9
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2020
Brief yet inspirational, this story will galvanize youth to use their voices for change.
Testa’s connection to and respect for nature compelled her to begin championing animal causes at the age of 10, and this desire to have an impact later propelled her to dedicate her life to fighting plastic pollution. Starting with the history of plastic and how it’s produced, Testa acknowledges the benefits of plastics for humanity but also the many ways it harms our planet. Instead of relying on recycling—which is both insufficient and ineffective—she urges readers to follow two additional R’s: “refuse” and “raise awareness.” Readers are encouraged to do their part, starting with small things like refusing to use plastic straws and water bottles and eventually working up to using their voices to influence business and policy change. In the process, she highlights other youth advocates working toward the same cause. Short chapters include personal examples, such as observations of plastic pollution in Mauritius, her maternal grandparents’ birthplace. Testa makes her case not only against plastic pollution, but also for the work she’s done, resulting in something of a college-admissions–essay tone. Nevertheless, the first-person accounts paired with science will have an impact on readers. Unfortunately, no sources are cited and the lack of backmatter is a missed opportunity.
Brief yet inspirational, this story will galvanize youth to use their voices for change. (Nonfiction. 12-18)Pub Date: Oct. 13, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-22333-8
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2020
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