Readers will find themselves rooting for this canny hero to get the guy and save the day.
Being a superhero isn’t easy, especially when you also have homework, college applications, and parents who worry when you are out past curfew.
In Liberty City, superheroing is a paid gig, and Javier, an 18-year-old Hispanic boy, is a nerdy high school senior by day and Blue Spark, one of the Legion’s Junior Heroes by night. In this novel, Pendragon crafts a winning tale of a teenager striving to come to terms with himself while keeping his city safe from the evil Organization, hanging with his best friend, and crushing on Rick, his seemingly perfect rugby player boyfriend. A Spanish immigrant whose family relocated to America when he was 5, Javi’s story is suitably harsher than the typical angst-ridden teen narrative. His struggle to learn English and the bullying he endures from classmates due to his lower socio-economic status illustrate the darker aspects of achieving the American dream, from which even superpowers cannot insulate him. This narrative packs a lot into its pages, seamlessly integrating an underdog superhero tale with a debate about the use of power and life’s lack of moral certainty. Best of all, it depicts a high school in which sex and sexuality are addressed matter-of-factly and joked about in an authentically teenage fashion.
Readers will find themselves rooting for this canny hero to get the guy and save the day. (Fantasy. 14-18)Pub Date: Nov. 7, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-62649-456-5
Page Count: 217
Publisher: Riptide
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2016
Two Rio Grande Valley high schoolers flirt with cutting out early but find reasons to finish school in this purposeful but intense tale. For Beto, it’s a combination of pride, disinterest in school and a clash with his caring but harsh father that sends him stalking away to spend the night in a Dumpster. For Beto's longtime friend Jessy, it’s a strong desire to be an artist, plus the strain of hearing her father beating her mother and knowing that her turn will be coming up one of these nights, that drives her to head for the bus to San Antonio. Using a mix of tenses and all three persons, Saldaña lays out his characters’ thoughts and emotional landscapes in broad strokes—creating a third angle of view by adding Beto’s little brother Roelito, who works his nalgas off in school but shows early signs of an ominous anger, as another narrative voice. The action takes place over the course of a little more than 12 hours, neatly capturing the spontaneity of teen impulses. Teen readers chafing at the domestic bit will find food for thought here. (Fiction. YA)
Pub Date: Oct. 30, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-55885-607-3
Page Count: 112
Publisher: Arte Público
Review Posted Online: Aug. 31, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2010
“Death is a period / at the end of a sentence,” concludes Annaleah, the 16-year-old protagonist of Schutz’s captivating fictional follow-up to her verse memoir (I Don’t Want To Be Crazy, 2006). And much like the resolute finality fixed in that tiny dot, Annaleah spends a great deal of this free-verse novel stuck contemplating the harsh reality that her sometime boyfriend, Brian—a seemingly healthy, dark-haired, cloudy-blue–eyed 17-year-old—has just dropped dead on the basketball court. Reeling from both physical loss and lack of closure to the meaning of their clandestine relationship, Annaleah finds herself routinely visiting and addressing the deceased Brian, until a chance graveside encounter yields advice that finally begins to hit home: “Nothing grows here,” says Brian’s grandmother, “besides grass.” At first blush appearing to pull out all the melodramatic stops in classic teen fashion, these refreshingly spare lines tackle tough relational issues—intimacy, risk, abandonment—with aplomb, making for a moving tale that also effectively shows teens how life can go on. (Fiction/poetry. 14 & up)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2010
ISBN: 970-0-545-16911-0
Page Count: 304
Publisher: PUSH/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Sept. 15, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2010
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
