Funny and frothy.
A zany British trifle about middle school popularity.
“I set Josie Graham on fire,” opens 12-year-old Anna. But she’s not a pyromaniac, really she’s not! It’s just that Josie’s “hairspray-laden locks” were near the Bunsen burner when Anna turned it on—without checking the setting, which was on the highest flame. She’s sure the incident will cement her friendlessness. Anna’s actual klutziness (walking into a pillar; rappelling down a cliff only to dangle upside down in a waterfall) and hilarious tendency to hide in closets ring truer than her supposed misery. Her narration—including lists, frantic emails, and rapid-fire note-passing—is daffily dramatic, not painfully sad. Her voice and quandaries sometimes seem artificially forced, giving them an absurdist air. Adding to the farcical vibe is Anna’s father’s sudden engagement to a famous movie star. Anna gets instant fame, access to Prada gowns, and famous connections to use for regaining two real friendships that, as readers will know, were solid all along. Her earnestly theatrical drama is often disarming, as when Anna hurts herself by lifting Dog, her full-grown Labrador, “as though he was Simba on Pride Rock during that ‘Circle of Life’ song.” Despite the London setting, Birchall’s cast is completely white, with nonwhite people showing up only off-page in unfortunate jokes such as Anna’s oft-mentioned plan to “go to Africa and hand out rice.”
Funny and frothy. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: June 14, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4814-6362-1
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: March 15, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Charming, poignant, and thoughtfully woven.
An aspiring scientist and a budding artist become friends and help each other with dream projects.
Unfolding in mid-1980s Sacramento, California, this story stars 12-year-olds Rosalind and Benjamin as first-person narrators in alternating chapters. Ro’s father, a fellow space buff, was killed by a drunk driver; the rocket they were working on together lies unfinished in her closet. As for Benji, not only has his best friend, Amir, moved away, but the comic book holding the clue for locating his dad is also missing. Along with their profound personal losses, the protagonists share a fixation with the universe’s intriguing potential: Ro decides to complete the rocket and hopes to launch mementos of her father into outer space while Benji’s conviction that aliens and UFOs are real compels his imagination and creativity as an artist. An accident in science class triggers a chain of events forcing Benji and Ro, who is new to the school, to interact and unintentionally learn each other’s secrets. They resolve to find Benji’s dad—a famous comic-book artist—and partner to finish Ro’s rocket for the science fair. Together, they overcome technical, scheduling, and geographical challenges. Readers will be drawn in by amusing and fantastical elements in the comic book theme, high emotional stakes that arouse sympathy, and well-drawn character development as the protagonists navigate life lessons around grief, patience, self-advocacy, and standing up for others. Ro is biracial (Chinese/White); Benji is White.
Charming, poignant, and thoughtfully woven. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Jan. 12, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-06-300888-5
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
A deftly told story that dramatizes how Danes appointed themselves bodyguards—not only for their king, who was in the habit...
The author of the Anastasia books as well as more serious fiction (Rabble Starkey, 1987) offers her first historical fiction—a story about the escape of the Jews from Denmark in 1943.
Five years younger than Lisa in Carol Matas' Lisa's War (1989), Annemarie Johansen has, at 10, known three years of Nazi occupation. Though ever cautious and fearful of the ubiquitous soldiers, she is largely unaware of the extent of the danger around her; the Resistance kept even its participants safer by telling them as little as possible, and Annemarie has never been told that her older sister Lise died in its service. When the Germans plan to round up the Jews, the Johansens take in Annemarie's friend, Ellen Rosen, and pretend she is their daughter; later, they travel to Uncle Hendrik's house on the coast, where the Rosens and other Jews are transported by fishing boat to Sweden. Apart from Lise's offstage death, there is little violence here; like Annemarie, the reader is protected from the full implications of events—but will be caught up in the suspense and menace of several encounters with soldiers and in Annemarie's courageous run as courier on the night of the escape. The book concludes with the Jews' return, after the war, to homes well kept for them by their neighbors.
A deftly told story that dramatizes how Danes appointed themselves bodyguards—not only for their king, who was in the habit of riding alone in Copenhagen, but for their Jews. (Historical fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: April 1, 1989
ISBN: 0547577095
Page Count: 156
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: Oct. 17, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1989
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