Delightfully told and sure to please.
“How did I get here?”
Those words echo through the mind of 13-year-old Movits Lind (Mo for short) as he stands atop the tallest skateboard ramp in Sweden, with his parents, his crush, and a TV crew below waiting for him to dazzle them with amazing tricks. The problem? Mo has no clue what he’s doing. Following this breathlessly immersive opening, Rundberg rewinds, taking readers on a highly satisfying journey as he reveals the events leading up to this moment. We learn that Mo and BFF Ruben are unathletic kids—video games and chess are where they soar—but while at a local park watching Ruben’s brother skate, they meet a hip skater girl named Bea. Mo falls hard for her, and after he tries out some skating moves to impress her and her friends—and by chance performs well—a video of his performance goes viral. Now Mo has an entirely unearned reputation as a talented skater, and though he’s uneasy—especially when a television company contacts him—he’s reluctant to come clean to Bea. Though the skating plotline drives this narrative, originally published in Sweden, the humor and attraction lie in the quiet moments of Mo’s daily life, from arguments with family members to cringe-inducing (and sweetly swoonworthy) interactions with Bea. Educators will find this an excellent read-aloud option, although the occasional Swedish word may require a little practice. Most characters present white.
Delightfully told and sure to please. (Fiction. 10-12)Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2025
ISBN: 9781662532030
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Amazon Crossing Kids
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2025
Wholesome shading to bland, but well-stocked with exotic creatures and locales, plus an agreeable cast headed by a child...
A San Diego preteen learns that she’s an elf, with a place in magic school if she moves to the elves’ hidden realm.
Having felt like an outsider since a knock on the head at age 5 left her able to read minds, Sophie is thrilled when hunky teen stranger Fitz convinces her that she’s not human at all and transports her to the land of Lumenaria, where the ageless elves live. Taken in by a loving couple who run a sanctuary for extinct and mythical animals, Sophie quickly gathers friends and rivals at Foxfire, a distinctly Hogwarts-style school. She also uncovers both clues to her mysterious origins and hints that a rash of strangely hard-to-quench wildfires back on Earth are signs of some dark scheme at work. Though Messenger introduces several characters with inner conflicts and ambiguous agendas, Sophie herself is more simply drawn as a smart, radiant newcomer who unwillingly becomes the center of attention while developing what turn out to be uncommonly powerful magical abilities—reminiscent of the younger Harry Potter, though lacking that streak of mischievousness that rescues Harry from seeming a little too perfect. The author puts her through a kidnapping and several close brushes with death before leaving her poised, amid hints of a higher destiny and still-anonymous enemies, for sequels.
Wholesome shading to bland, but well-stocked with exotic creatures and locales, plus an agreeable cast headed by a child who, while overly fond of screaming, rises to every challenge. (Fantasy. 10-12)Pub Date: Oct. 2, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-4424-4593-2
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: July 17, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2012
On equal footing with a garden-variety potato.
The new kid in school endures becoming the school mascot.
Ben Hardy has never cared for potatoes, and this distaste has become a barrier to adjusting to life in his new Idaho town. His school’s mascot is the Spud, and after a series of misfortunes, Ben is enlisted to don the potato costume and cheer on his school’s team. Ben balances his duties as a life-sized potato against his desperate desire to hide the fact that he’s the dork in the suit. After all, his cute new crush, Jayla, wouldn’t be too impressed to discover Ben’s secret. The ensuing novel is a fairly boilerplate middle–grade narrative: snarky tween protagonist, the crush that isn’t quite what she seems, and a pair of best friends that have more going on than our hero initially believes. The author keeps the novel moving quickly, pushing forward with witty asides and narrative momentum so fast that readers won’t really mind that the plot’s spine is one they’ve encountered many times before. Once finished, readers will feel little resonance and move on to the next book in their to-read piles, but in the moment the novel is pleasant enough. Ben, Jayla, and Ben’s friend Hunter are white while Ellie, Ben’s other good pal, is Latina.
On equal footing with a garden-variety potato. (Fiction. 10-12)Pub Date: March 24, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-11866-5
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Nov. 23, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
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