by Julie Hammerle ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 7, 2016
A winning story about a teenage voice student that hits all the right notes.
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Set at a summer music camp in Indiana, this debut YA novel spins a tale of romance and self-discovery.
Seventeen-year-old Tullia Cicero “Kiki” Nichols arrives at Indianapolis’ Krause College for a six-week voice camp determined to be a different girl than she was back home in Chicago. There, she was a “sweatpants enthusiast and perpetual chorus girl” and a huge fan of the sci-fi series Project Earth and its soundtrack of 1990s girl power music. She’s got more friends on Twitter than in real life, especially now that her best pal, Beth, has dumped her out of jealousy that Kiki got into music camp and she didn’t. At camp, Kiki wears twee dresses selected by her older sister, Tina, and conceals her Project Earth fandom—and starts to make new friends, including queen bee soprano Brie, dreamboat Seth Banks, and khaki-clad cutie Jack, who’s attending golf camp at Krause but secretly loves drumming. Kiki, a soprano, knows her parents won’t pay for Krause unless she receives one of seven scholarships awarded at the end of camp—and her best bet at getting one is landing the renowned Greg Bertrand as her voice teacher. But when she’s assigned to his class, he tells her in confidence that she can improve her chances by informing on any classmates behaving inappropriately. For Bertrand, this includes singing pop songs, meaning Kiki’s beloved Lilith Fair music is forbidden. Does Kiki really want to study nothing but opera for four years? And who’s Bertrand’s mole in their midst? Hammerle captures the intoxicating potential of leaving home and trying on a new persona, even as Kiki gradually realizes that she isn’t being true to herself. The author also demonstrates an understanding of how teens use social media—every chapter begins with one of Kiki’s tweets, and her online friendships are as important to her as those offline. Finally, Hammerle resists the urge to couple her protagonist off predictably—when was the last time a YA heroine got to kiss two boys while having a crush on a third without it ending badly for everyone?
A winning story about a teenage voice student that hits all the right notes.Pub Date: June 7, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-63375-503-1
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Entangled Teen
Review Posted Online: May 24, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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BOOK REVIEW
by Stephen Chbosky ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 4, 1999
Aspiring filmmaker/first-novelist Chbosky adds an upbeat ending to a tale of teenaged angst—the right combination of realism and uplift to allow it on high school reading lists, though some might object to the sexuality, drinking, and dope-smoking. More sophisticated readers might object to the rip-off of Salinger, though Chbosky pays homage by having his protagonist read Catcher in the Rye. Like Holden, Charlie oozes sincerity, rails against celebrity phoniness, and feels an extraliterary bond with his favorite writers (Harper Lee, Fitzgerald, Kerouac, Ayn Rand, etc.). But Charlie’s no rich kid: the third child in a middle-class family, he attends public school in western Pennsylvania, has an older brother who plays football at Penn State, and an older sister who worries about boys a lot. An epistolary novel addressed to an anonymous “friend,” Charlie’s letters cover his first year in high school, a time haunted by the recent suicide of his best friend. Always quick to shed tears, Charlie also feels guilty about the death of his Aunt Helen, a troubled woman who lived with Charlie’s family at the time of her fatal car wreck. Though he begins as a friendless observer, Charlie is soon pals with seniors Patrick and Sam (for Samantha), stepsiblings who include Charlie in their circle, where he smokes pot for the first time, drops acid, and falls madly in love with the inaccessible Sam. His first relationship ends miserably because Charlie remains compulsively honest, though he proves a loyal friend (to Patrick when he’s gay-bashed) and brother (when his sister needs an abortion). Depressed when all his friends prepare for college, Charlie has a catatonic breakdown, which resolves itself neatly and reveals a long-repressed truth about Aunt Helen. A plain-written narrative suggesting that passivity, and thinking too much, lead to confusion and anxiety. Perhaps the folks at (co-publisher) MTV see the synergy here with Daria or any number of videos by the sensitive singer-songwriters they feature.
Pub Date: Feb. 4, 1999
ISBN: 0-671-02734-4
Page Count: 256
Publisher: MTV Books/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 1999
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SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
by Walter Dean Myers ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 31, 1999
The format of this taut and moving drama forcefully regulates the pacing; breathless, edge-of-the-seat courtroom scenes...
In a riveting novel from Myers (At Her Majesty’s Request, 1999, etc.), a teenager who dreams of being a filmmaker writes the story of his trial for felony murder in the form of a movie script, with journal entries after each day’s action.
Steve is accused of being an accomplice in the robbery and murder of a drug store owner. As he goes through his trial, returning each night to a prison where most nights he can hear other inmates being beaten and raped, he reviews the events leading to this point in his life. Although Steve is eventually acquitted, Myers leaves it up to readers to decide for themselves on his protagonist’s guilt or innocence.
The format of this taut and moving drama forcefully regulates the pacing; breathless, edge-of-the-seat courtroom scenes written entirely in dialogue alternate with thoughtful, introspective journal entries that offer a sense of Steve’s terror and confusion, and that deftly demonstrate Myers’s point: the road from innocence to trouble is comprised of small, almost invisible steps, each involving an experience in which a “positive moral decision” was not made. (Fiction. 12-14)Pub Date: May 31, 1999
ISBN: 0-06-028077-8
Page Count: 280
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1999
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by Walter Dean Myers ; illustrated by Floyd Cooper
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
by Walter Dean Myers ; adapted by Guy A. Sims ; illustrated by Dawud Anyabwile
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