A thoughtful and entertaining coming-of-age tale with a vibrant setting.
When three teenagers get lost in the desert, dangerous conditions, animals, and people test their mettle in this debut YA novel.
It’s 1968, and for 13-year-old tanned friends Max, Eddie, and Daniel, one of their few pastimes in the high desert is staging scorpion battles in a mock arena. Daniel’s canyon-bred gladiators are the toughest, so the friends arrange a camping trip to find some more, emboldened by his knowledge of desert survival. After catching several scorpions, the friends decide to explore one of the nearby mines. Maybe they’ll even find the legendary Lost Randolph Mine or run across a missing test pilot. Although the boys take careful precautions, they get badly lost. The three emerge into unknown territory where they must fight for survival, and not just against the elements. More than once, the boys must escape from unsavory or criminal desert dwellers, though they also find some unusual allies. The experience brings the friends many new understandings of themselves, the world they live in, and their families. Murnane writes an exciting adventure story with risky scenarios that give his characters many chances to show their courage and considerable resourcefulness in matters like orienteering, handling a rattlesnake, and finding water. The dramatic, eerie desert setting is a greatly effective backdrop that’s described with vivid authenticity. More than that, the novel also explores thorny issues like the Vietnam War, assassinations, and racism. In one episode, for example, the boys investigate a deserted Manzanar—a kind of shameful ghost town. Also thorny, and central to the book, are fraught father-and-son relationships and cultural expectations around masculinity, leading to emotional rapprochements. The ending indulges in some wish-fulfillment rewards, but it’s a feel-good conclusion that readers will enjoy.
A thoughtful and entertaining coming-of-age tale with a vibrant setting.Pub Date: Nov. 24, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-70822-355-7
Page Count: 267
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: March 18, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
A standing ovation.
Tackles family secrets, toxic masculinity, and socio-economic differences with incisive clarity and candor.
Camino Rios lives in the Dominican Republic and yearns to go to Columbia University in New York City, where her father works most of the year. Yahaira Rios, who lives in Morningside Heights, hasn’t spoken to her dad since the previous summer, when she found out he has another wife in the Dominican Republic. Their lives collide when this man, their dad, dies in an airplane crash with hundreds of other passengers heading to the island. Each protagonist grieves the tragic death of their larger-than-life father and tries to unravel the tangled web of lies he kept secret for almost 20 years. The author pays reverent tribute to the lives lost in a similar crash in 2001. The half sisters are vastly different—Yahaira is dark skinned, a chess champion who has a girlfriend; Camino is lighter skinned, a talented swimmer who helps her curandera aunt deliver neighborhood babies. Despite their differences, they slowly forge a tenuous bond. The book is told in alternating chapters with headings counting how many days have passed since the fateful event. Acevedo balances the two perspectives with ease, contrasting the girls’ environments and upbringings. Camino’s verses read like poetic prose, flowing and straightforward. Yahaira’s sections have more breaks and urgent, staccato beats. Every line is laced with betrayal and longing as the teens struggle with loving someone despite his imperfections.
A standing ovation. (Verse novel. 14-18)Pub Date: May 5, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-06-288276-9
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2020
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