A thought-provoking, beautiful exploration of the artistic process.
Aurora, raised in a rural commune, finds her notions of art challenged by her introduction to the New York City graffiti-art scene in the 1980s.
Aurora is struggling to define her artistic identity, a process complicated by her father’s suicide by house fire, an act that nearly killed the entire family. The tragedy forces Aurora, her sister, and their mother into New York City. Caught in the whirlwind of public assistance and public school, and besieged by the city’s commercialized chaos, Aurora retreats into her sketchbooks to explore her father’s complicated legacy. Her drawings of her father on fire and her imagined conversations with him, in which he offers opinions on her new life, powerfully complement the prose, the sketchlike quality of the art emulating an artist’s personal sketchbook. In art class, Aurora meets Trey, a graffiti artist with whom she forms a contentiously competitive bond that is also laced with admiration and attraction—a relationship not unlike Aurora’s feelings about graffiti, which she finds both alluring and perilous. Aurora acknowledges the graffiti artists’ talents, as well as the issues of danger and vandalism that accompany the medium. With a nod to the best parts of her father’s unconventional spirit, Aurora eventually integrates her own unorthodox styles into her graffiti while also exploring more traditional gallery spaces as potential avenues for her future works.
A thought-provoking, beautiful exploration of the artistic process. (Historical fiction. 12 & up)Pub Date: Aug. 18, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-8037-3910-9
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: April 28, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
This tear-jerker will leave readers wanting to follow the next chapter in Darius’ life.
Darius Kellner suffers from depression, bullying by high school jocks, and a father who seems to always be disappointed in him.
When Darius’ grandfather becomes terminally ill, Darius, along with his parents and younger sister, travels to Iran for the first time in his life. Iranian on his mother’s side and white American on his father’s side, Darius never quite fits in. He’s mocked for his name and nerdy interests at Chapel Hill High School in Portland, Oregon, and doesn’t speak enough Farsi to communicate with his Iranian relatives either. When he arrives in Iran, learning to play the Persian card game Rook, socializing, and celebrating Nowruz with a family he had never properly met before is all overwhelming and leaves Darius wondering if he’ll ever truly belong anywhere. But all that changes when Darius meets Sohrab, a Bahá’í boy, in Yazd. Sohrab teaches Darius what friendship is really about: loyalty, honesty, and someone who has your back in a football (soccer) match. For the first time in a long time, Darius learns to love himself no matter what external forces attempt to squash his confidence. Khorram’s debut novel is filled with insight into the lives of teens, weaving together the reality of living with mental illness while also dealing with identity and immigration politics.
This tear-jerker will leave readers wanting to follow the next chapter in Darius’ life. (Fiction. 12-adult)Pub Date: Aug. 28, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-525-55296-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: June 17, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PROFILES
PROFILES
This grittily provocative debut explores the horrors of self-harm and the healing power of artistic expression.
After surviving a suicide attempt, a fragile teen isn't sure she can endure without cutting herself.
Seventeen-year-old Charlie Davis, a white girl living on the margins, thinks she has little reason to live: her father drowned himself; her bereft and abusive mother kicked her out; her best friend, Ellis, is nearly brain dead after cutting too deeply; and she's gone through unspeakable experiences living on the street. After spending time in treatment with other young women like her—who cut, burn, poke, and otherwise hurt themselves—Charlie is released and takes a bus from the Twin Cities to Tucson to be closer to Mikey, a boy she "like-likes" but who had pined for Ellis instead. But things don't go as planned in the Arizona desert, because sweet Mikey just wants to be friends. Feeling rejected, Charlie, an artist, is drawn into a destructive new relationship with her sexy older co-worker, a "semifamous" local musician who's obviously a junkie alcoholic. Through intense, diarylike chapters chronicling Charlie's journey, the author captures the brutal and heartbreaking way "girls who write their pain on their bodies" scar and mar themselves, either succumbing or surviving. Like most issue books, this is not an easy read, but it's poignant and transcendent as Charlie breaks more and more before piecing herself back together.
This grittily provocative debut explores the horrors of self-harm and the healing power of artistic expression. (author’s note) (Fiction. 14 & up)Pub Date: Aug. 30, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-101-93471-5
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2016
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