This successful debut delivers chick-lit fun and a bit of depth, all served up with a dash of ESP.
Fourteen-year-old Emerson cares about two things: cosmetics, especially lip gloss, and finding a suitable boyfriend. She always struggled with school, but now she’s close to failing. Her aunt, struggling financially, threatens to pull her out of her high-priced private school if her grades don’t improve. But Emerson has a strange ability: She can read minds when she kisses someone, so the panic-stricken teen decides to use it to her academic advantage. Kissing one of the school’s math geeks zooms mathematics into her head, and she aces her next test. She devises a plan to kiss all the nerdy boys and thereby fill in her academic needs, but she winds up falling for one of them. Trouble ensues when he discovers her kissing promiscuity, and Emerson finally realizes she’s done wrong. Anderson writes with a light touch but fleshes out her characters nicely. She keeps her focus on Emerson’s guilt about using the boys and gives her a difficult family history—her mother committed suicide—investing her story with some emotional intensity. Although the book easily can appeal to the chick-lit audience with its constant search for those elusive boyfriends, some school rivalries and, especially, the overarching importance of cosmetics in life, those looking for more won’t go away unsatisfied.
Fun, funny and thoughtful. (Paranormal chick-lit. 12 & up)Pub Date: Oct. 2, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-7614-6316-0
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Amazon Children's Publishing
Review Posted Online: Aug. 21, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2012
Categories: CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES
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A painful story smartly told, Benjamin’s first solo novel has appeal well beyond a middle school audience.
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In middle school, where “Worst Thing” can mean anything from a pimple to public humiliation, Suzy “Zu” Swanson really has a reason to be in crisis: her former best friend has died unexpectedly, and the seventh-grader is literally silenced by grief and confusion.
A chance encounter with a jellyfish display on a school trip gives her focus—for Zu, the venomous Irukandji jellyfish, while rare, provides a possible explanation for the “how” of Franny’s death. And Zu is desperate for answers and relief from her haunting grief and guilt. In seven parts neatly organized around the scientific method as presented by Mrs. Turton, a middle school teacher who really gets the fragility of her students, Zu examines and analyzes past and present. A painful story of friendship made and lost emerges: the inseparable early years, Franny’s pulling away, Zu’s increasing social isolation, and a final attempt by Zu to honor a childhood pact. The author gently paints Zu as a bit of an oddball; not knowing what hair product to use leaves her feeling “like a separate species altogether,” and knowing too many species of jellyfish earns her the nickname Medusa. Surrounded by the cruelty of adolescence, Zu is awkward, smart, methodical, and driven by sadness. She eventually follows her research far beyond the middle school norm, because “ ‘Sometimes things just happen’ is not an explanation. It is not remotely scientific.”
A painful story smartly told, Benjamin’s first solo novel has appeal well beyond a middle school audience. (Fiction. 12 & up)Pub Date: Sept. 22, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-316-38086-7
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: May 5, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2015
Categories: CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES
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In the sequel to Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus (2017), Aven Green confronts her biggest challenge yet: surviving high school without arms.
Fourteen-year-old Aven has just settled into life at Stagecoach Pass with her adoptive parents when everything changes again. She’s entering high school, which means that 2,300 new kids will stare at her missing arms—and her feet, which do almost everything hands can (except, alas, air quotes). Aven resolves to be “blasé” and field her classmates’ pranks with aplomb, but a humiliating betrayal shakes her self-confidence. Even her friendships feel unsteady. Her friend Connor’s moved away and made a new friend who, like him, has Tourette’s syndrome: a girl. And is Lando, her friend Zion’s popular older brother, being sweet to Aven out of pity—or something more? Bowling keenly depicts the universal awkwardness of adolescence and the particular self-consciousness of navigating a disability. Aven’s “armless-girl problems” realistically grow thornier in this outing, touching on such tough topics as death and aging, but warm, quirky secondary characters lend support. A few preachy epiphanies notwithstanding, Aven’s honest, witty voice shines—whether out-of-reach vending-machine snacks are “taunting” her or she’s nursing heartaches. A subplot exploring Aven’s curiosity about her biological father resolves with a touching twist. Most characters, including Aven, appear white; Zion and Lando are black.
Those preparing to “slay the sucktastic beast known as high school” will particularly appreciate this spirited read. (Fiction. 12-14)Pub Date: Sept. 17, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4549-3329-8
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Sterling
Review Posted Online: June 9, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2019
Categories: CHILDREN'S FAMILY | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES
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