Daydreaming Cody LeBeau from the Abenaki tribe naively imagines he needs ninja moves to be a hero, confident and popular. This disconnect is momentary, as bullies in his new junior high school push him around all day. Initially, he’s an unconvincing character whose old-fashioned vocabulary and adult point of view don’t fit a teen in the 21st century; many of his thoughts sound like a mother’s. The first four chapters meander through Cody’s nightmarish new school experience, until Uncle John appears and exemplifies a hero’s path. Uncle, in town to fight in a prestigious competition, teaches Cody “The Way,” a Native-American tradition of integrity and strength that empowers the mind and body. The slow start gets some impetus and then moves into high gear when Cody’s new spiritual insight helps him to maintain his internal and physical balance and compels him humbly, yet with all his heart and strength, to diffuse a mass killing. This feat is what he imagines in the beginning, minus the foot-kicking and fist-punching. This subject needs a modern edge that is lacking in text that uses the “fresh as the proverbial daisy” metaphor and other clichéd phrasing. Not one of Bruchac’s better efforts. (Fiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2007
ISBN: 978-1-58196-062-4
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Darby Creek
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2007
A child finds that being alone in a tiny tropical paradise has its ups and downs in this appealingly offbeat tale from the Australian author of Peeling the Onion (1999). Though her mother is long dead and her scientist father Jack has just sailed off on a quick expedition to gather plankton, Nim is anything but lonely on her small island home. Not only does she have constant companions in Selkie, a sea lion, and a marine iguana named Fred, but Chica, a green turtle, has just arrived for an annual egg-laying—and, through the solar-powered laptop, she has even made a new e-mail friend in famed adventure novelist Alex Rover. Then a string of mishaps darkens Nim’s sunny skies: her father loses rudder and dish antenna in a storm; a tourist ship that was involved in her mother’s death appears off the island’s reefs; and, running down a volcanic slope, Nim takes a nasty spill that leaves her feverish, with an infected knee. Though she lives halfway around the world and is in reality a decidedly unadventurous urbanite, Alex, short for “Alexandra,” sets off to the rescue, arriving in the midst of another storm that requires Nim and companions to rescue her. Once Jack brings his battered boat limping home, the stage is set for sunny days again. Plenty of comic, freely-sketched line drawings help to keep the tone light, and Nim, with her unusual associates and just-right mix of self-reliance and vulnerability, makes a character young readers won’t soon tire of. (Fiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-375-81123-0
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2000
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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