Like Muna in The Sign of the Chrysanthemum (KR, 1973) Takiko, the daughter of a samurai, is a young teenager in 12th century Japan who loses a parent and moves about on her own during the wars between the Heike and the Genii dans. First seen as a protected child, Takiko adjusts to a humbler rural existence after her father's death, later becomes a favorite entertainer at the court of the infant emperor, is preoccupied then by her once-consummated love affair with an enemy spy, shares the pain and humiliation of her exiled court's defeat at sea, and at last endures exhausting, disfiguring field work beside the ugly, misshapen potter — her dead mother's second husband -whom Takiko herself decides in the end to marry. Again the exquisitely reconstructed backgrounds and episodes and the gradual character development will induce admirers of historical fiction to share Takiko's experience of her times and follow her dramatic progress from innocence to extremity.
Pub Date: Sept. 23, 1974
ISBN: 0064402827
Page Count: 196
Publisher: T.Y. Crowell
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1974
BOOK REVIEW
A triumphant debut.
Fourteen-year-old Heera knows what fate awaits many girls growing up in Lalten Bazaar, a red-light district in Bihar, India, commonly known as Girls Bazaar.
Her neighborhood is controlled by gang leader Ravi Lala, who uses predatory loans and the support of corrupt police officers to keep families impoverished and force girls into prostitution. As a member of the marginalized Nat caste, Heera knows many obstacles await her. Her cousin Mira Di was auctioned off by her father to a traveling dance company. When a fight with a bully leads to Heera’s expulsion from school, she knows it will only be a matter of time before her father sells her to Ravi Lala. Fortunately, Heera receives help from Rini Di, a women’s rights advocate in charge of a hostel for vulnerable girls, and joins kung fu lessons at the hostel. As Heera’s strength and self-confidence grow, so does her desire to help the girls and women in her community break free, especially when Heera finds out that her best friend will soon be sold and smuggled abroad. Heera’s narration contains vivid sensory descriptions that, along with the Hindi words scattered throughout, bring the setting to life, quickly immersing readers in her world. The depth of the story’s details and its themes of bodily autonomy, community, and women’s empowerment reflect Gupta’s experience as the founder of Apne Aap, an NGO working to end sex trafficking.
A triumphant debut. (author’s note, resources) (Fiction. 13-18)Pub Date: April 18, 2023
ISBN: 9781338825091
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Jan. 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
PERSPECTIVES
Raw, breathtaking, and brilliant.
In 1990s Bushwick, Brooklyn, 14-year-old Sarai tries to make sense of herself, her neighborhood, and the world she is growing up in.
Sarai is the youngest of three kids born to a single mother who survived domestic violence and who fights tooth and nail to keep her kids fed and alive. Velasquez’s debut novel is a collection of raw ruminations that together form Sarai’s heart-wrenching, honest, and critical narrative. With an in-your-face, call-everything-out flavor, the poetry begs to be read out loud to appreciate the full force of its rhythmic cadence and thought-provoking, sophisticated critiques. These include pointed commentary on teachers who work but don’t live in Bushwick and newspapers that only tell one side of the story. Velasquez, a Bushwick native herself, tells a real, on-the-block narrative of the neighborhood through Sarai, with biting pieces that masterfully weave themes of religion, street life, sexual assault, language, poverty, the complexities of Boricua/Puerto Rican/Nuyorican identity, and so much more. Nine of the pieces are “poems in conversation” with ones written by Jacqueline Woodson, Sandra Cisneros, Nikki Giovanni, Nuyorican poet Mariposa, and others. This element, coupled with the diversity of poetic forms, from blackout poetry to stream of consciousness, makes this a gem for pleasure reading as well as classroom use. All primary characters are Puerto Rican.
Raw, breathtaking, and brilliant. (author’s note, "poems in conversation" credits) (Verse novel. 14-adult)Pub Date: Sept. 21, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-32448-6
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2021
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