Bewildering life changes erupt at the tilt of an IHOP syrup bottle, or so the story begins in playwright Ackermann’s punchy first YA endeavor. Fifteen-year-old Colm is a walking paradox: He’s good-looking, a handyman, astute at business and dedicated to home and hearth. At the same time, he’s a homebody, stuck in a rut, with little or no contact with the world outside his family. When his simpleton mom embarks on her second or third or fourth honeymoon and threatens to sell the family homestead, Colm decides to buy it himself. Funds for the purchase arrive in the guise of Lloyd Henry, his ne’er-do-well deadbeat biological dad, whose friend has taken a warrant of some sort out on his life for 70-grand. Colm’s plan: to drive his dad—without a license—from Massachusetts to California, collect the cash and buy the house. Along the journey, readers meet an outlandish, kooky cast of characters, including a sister with serious anger-management issues and a grapefruit-obsessed escaped convict. Amid it all, Ackermann’s cinematic, bluntly off-kilter dialogue keeps readers guessing and the pages turning. Less sophisticated than John Green’s An Abundance of Katherines (2006), but similar in theme, Colm’s internal and physical search for self, family, friendship and home—not to mention his dad’s clipped, endearing way of showing affection—is exactly the bizarre father-son story you’ll wish Hollywood would make. (Fiction. YA)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2007
ISBN: 978-0-06-072255-5
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Laura Geringer/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2007
An ode to the children of migrants who have been taken away.
A Mexican American boy takes on heavy responsibilities when his family is torn apart.
Mateo’s life is turned upside down the day U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents show up unsuccessfully seeking his Pa at his New York City bodega. The Garcias live in fear until the day both parents are picked up; his Pa is taken to jail and his Ma to a detention center. The adults around Mateo offer support to him and his 7-year-old sister, Sophie, however, he knows he is now responsible for caring for her and the bodega as well as trying to survive junior year—that is, if he wants to fulfill his dream to enter the drama program at the Tisch School of the Arts and become an actor. Mateo’s relationships with his friends Kimmie and Adam (a potential love interest) also suffer repercussions as he keeps his situation a secret. Kimmie is half Korean (her other half is unspecified) and Adam is Italian American; Mateo feels disconnected from them, less American, and with worries they can’t understand. He talks himself out of choosing a safer course of action, a decision that deepens the story. Mateo’s self-awareness and inner monologue at times make him seem older than 16, and, with significant turmoil in the main plot, some side elements feel underdeveloped. Aleman’s narrative joins the ranks of heart-wrenching stories of migrant families who have been separated.
An ode to the children of migrants who have been taken away. (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: May 4, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-7595-5605-8
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 22, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
Immersive and engaging, despite some flaws, and destined to capture imaginations.
Magic, mystery, and love intertwine and invite in this newest take on the “enchanted circus” trope.
Sisters raised by their abusive father, a governor of a colonial backwater in a world vaguely reminiscent of the late 18th century, Scarlett and Donatella each long for something more. Scarlett, olive-skinned, dark of hair and attitude, longs for Caraval, the fabled, magical circus helmed by the possibly evil Master Legend Santos, while blonde, sunny Tella finds comfort in drink and the embraces of various men. A slightly awkward start, with inconsistencies of attitude and setting, rapidly smooths out when they, along with handsome “golden-brown” sailor Julian, flee to Caraval on the eve of Scarlett’s arranged marriage. Tella disappears, and Scarlett must navigate a nighttime world of magic to find her. Caraval delights the senses: beautiful and scary, described in luscious prose, this is a show readers will wish they could enter. Dresses can be purchased for secrets or days of life; clocks can become doors; bridges move: this is an inventive and original circus, laced with an edge of horror. A double love story, one sensual romance and the other sisterly loyalty, anchors the plot, but the real star here is Caraval and its secrets.
Immersive and engaging, despite some flaws, and destined to capture imaginations. (Fantasy. 14 & up)Pub Date: Jan. 31, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-250-09525-1
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Review Posted Online: Sept. 18, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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