A blend of war story and coming-of-age novel sure to hold the readers’ attention.
A teenager moves toward maturity during the early days of World War II in Reynolds’ historical YA novel.
Pheemie Longworth is a student at a Catholic high school in Phoenix, Arizona, when the United States enters World War II. While her outgoing twin sister, Zella, sees the war as a chance to flirt with soldiers passing through the city, bookish Pheemie serves coffee and doughnuts out of a sense of duty, tries to balance her emotional reaction to Pearl Harbor with sympathy for her Japanese American neighbors, and dreams of being with Rafe Gonzalez, the son of her family’s housekeeper, who has gone from childhood playmate to love of her life. When Pheemie and Rafe’s relationship is discovered, they face immediate opposition from everyone. After her father pays Rafe to stay away, Pheemie goes from docile schoolgirl to rebellious prankster. She fails to reconcile with her father, a military pilot, before he leaves for the front and soon learns that the war’s challenges go beyond gasoline rationing and meatless Tuesdays. When Zella learns that one of her dalliances has died in combat, Pheemie resolves to take responsibility for her actions and demonstrate her growing maturity. The book is an engaging read; Reynolds evocatively describes a setting that sets it apart from other World War II fiction. Readers will feel that they’re on the desert roads with Pheemie and Zella when they sneak out in the family car (“Even in March, the sun beat down on harsh, desolate land, parching everything white and leaving nothing but gravel in the riverbeds”). The plot drags at times, particularly as Pheemie’s acts of rebellion devolve into pointless petulance, but the pacing comes together in the book’s final third with the arrival of a boarder, an Army wife who challenges Pheemie’s assumptions and guides her away from self-pity. The narrative incorporates the experiences of Japanese-Americans and Latines, and although they are filtered through Pheemie’s privileged understanding of her community, they bring a welcome dimension to the familiar story of war as seen through civilian eyes.
A blend of war story and coming-of-age novel sure to hold the readers’ attention.Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2023
ISBN: 9798437712757
Page Count: 253
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2023
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
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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