Papering over messy but fundamental issues, this well-intentioned, Christian-infused debut—though competently...
After her black dad and white mom separate, Nina Armstrong, 15, explores her mixed-race identity.
Nina’s circle of friends is white. Prompted by another girl, her best friend now turns openly racist. Neither defends Nina when a racist shopkeeper falsely accuses her of theft and searches her. Nina’s father has also started noticing racism. His bitter comment on how white cops treat black victims of a gas explosion causes Nina to wonder, “Who is this Dad?” It may serve the plot, but the family’s past indifference to race and late discovery of virulent racism strains credulity. Interwoven with her story is her father’s history of a courageous, enslaved ancestor who escaped to freedom; reading it helps Nina cope with the racism she encounters. Race and multiracial identity are challenging subjects, messy and evolving; Lester, a white diversity consultant, appears disconcertingly unaware herself of changing terminology; Dad routinely identifies enslaved forbears as “slaves.” For African-Americans, whose mixed ancestry stems from sexual assault by white men on enslaved women and whose racial identity was long defined by the “one drop” rule, claiming white heritage remains fraught and complicated.
Papering over messy but fundamental issues, this well-intentioned, Christian-infused debut—though competently written—achieves its cheerful resolution at the expense of credibility. (glossary, bibliography) (Fiction. 12 & up)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-310-72763-7
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Zondervan
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2011
Highly imaginative and powerfully affecting.
Folklore, fantasy, and horror are interwoven in this story of a 17-year-old’s journey to save her brother set in 1836 Wisconsin.
The story unfolds as Catalina’s father dies and her brother, Jose Luis, is stolen by the Man of Sap, a monstrosity of bark and leaves. Pa ranted about the terror of the Man of Sap’s deadly apples before he succumbed to them, but when the monster disappears with Jose Luis, Catalina’s world falls apart. Taking a satchel of supplies, Mamá’s beloved book of poetry by Sor Juana de la Cruz—a treasure from her Mexican homeland—and a knife that belonged to her white Pa, Catalina sets off to find her brother and destroy the Man of Sap. Along the way, she finds friendship, terrifying creatures, whispers of magic, and the key to believing that love is not always lost. Surrounded by poetry, both that of de la Cruz and her own personal writing that she cannot finish, Catalina finds words are a redemptive force. Readers are thrown into an exploration of the heartbreak and loneliness following death and loss, and each character, whether human or otherwise, brings introspection and courage to the tale. Mesmerizingly told through the eyes of both Catalina and the monster, the book invites readers to travel with characters who are reckoning with greed, fear, and love as they consider what makes a monster—and whether monsters can be redeemed.
Highly imaginative and powerfully affecting. (author’s note) (Speculative fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: Oct. 3, 2023
ISBN: 9781682636473
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Peachtree Teen
Review Posted Online: June 21, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
Characters to love, quips to snort at, insights to ponder: typical Spinelli.
For two teenagers, a small town’s annual cautionary ritual becomes both a life- and a death-changing experience.
On the second Wednesday in June, every eighth grader in Amber Springs, Pennsylvania, gets a black shirt, the name and picture of a teen killed the previous year through reckless behavior—and the silent treatment from everyone in town. Like many of his classmates, shy, self-conscious Robbie “Worm” Tarnauer has been looking forward to Dead Wed as a day for cutting loose rather than sober reflection…until he finds himself talking to a strange girl or, as she would have it, “spectral maiden,” only he can see or touch. Becca Finch is as surprised and confused as Worm, only remembering losing control of her car on an icy slope that past Christmas Eve. But being (or having been, anyway) a more outgoing sort, she sees their encounter as a sign that she’s got a mission. What follows, in a long conversational ramble through town and beyond, is a day at once ordinary yet rich in discovery and self-discovery—not just for Worm, but for Becca too, with a climactic twist that leaves both ready, or readier, for whatever may come next. Spinelli shines at setting a tongue-in-cheek tone for a tale with serious underpinnings, and as in Stargirl (2000), readers will be swept into the relationship that develops between this adolescent odd couple. Characters follow a White default.
Characters to love, quips to snort at, insights to ponder: typical Spinelli. (Fiction. 12-15)Pub Date: Aug. 3, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-30667-3
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 31, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2021
© 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.
