A promising and timely story that never finds its sea legs.
The peace of a remote Scottish island is shattered when two bodies wash up on the beach. One is a whale; the other is human.
When 15-year-old Hayley’s mother needs to travel to Europe for her research, Hayley imagines London or Paris, not the island of Nin, with its painfully slow Wi-Fi and nonexistent cellphone service. As a local, Fraser is used to the quiet life, but he wishes for something to interrupt his predictable holiday. Hayley, as rude as she is beautiful, is definitely a mixed bag. When Dunny, Fraser’s electively mute little brother, discovers a man hiding in the caves above the beach, it is up to the three white kids to figure out how to help the stranded man, who is black, get to safety. But human traffickers are dangerous foes, and they soon find themselves in over their heads. The richly scenic setting and unusual story hold promise, but it is marred by static characters and an aimlessly meandering plot. Hayley is the blonde, loud cheerleader from Texas, and Fraser is the introspective dreamer with a love for the sea. Only Dunny, with his mysterious ability to communicate with the whales, is engaging, although that portrayal subscribes to yet another stereotype.
A promising and timely story that never finds its sea legs. (Fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: May 30, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-545-90420-9
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Chicken House/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: March 14, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2017
Well-educated American boys from privileged families have abundant options for college and career. For Chiko, their Burmese counterpart, there are no good choices. There is never enough to eat, and his family lives in constant fear of the military regime that has imprisoned Chiko’s physician father. Soon Chiko is commandeered by the army, trained to hunt down members of the Karenni ethnic minority. Tai, another “recruit,” uses his streetwise survival skills to help them both survive. Meanwhile, Tu Reh, a Karenni youth whose village was torched by the Burmese Army, has been chosen for his first military mission in his people’s resistance movement. How the boys meet and what comes of it is the crux of this multi-voiced novel. While Perkins doesn’t sugarcoat her subject—coming of age in a brutal, fascistic society—this is a gentle story with a lot of heart, suitable for younger readers than the subject matter might suggest. It answers the question, “What is it like to be a child soldier?” clearly, but with hope. (author’s note, historical note) (Fiction. 11-14)
Pub Date: July 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-58089-328-2
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Charlesbridge
Review Posted Online: May 31, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2010
Ebulliently original.
Who can't love a story about a Nigerian-American 12-year-old with albinism who discovers latent magical abilities and saves the world?
Sunny lives in Nigeria after spending the first nine years of her life in New York. She can't play soccer with the boys because, as she says, "being albino made the sun my enemy," and she has only enemies at school. When a boy in her class, Orlu, rescues her from a beating, Sunny is drawn in to a magical world she's never known existed. Sunny, it seems, is a Leopard person, one of the magical folk who live in a world mostly populated by ignorant Lambs. Now she spends the day in mundane Lamb school and sneaks out at night to learn magic with her cadre of Leopard friends: a handsome American bad boy, an arrogant girl who is Orlu’s childhood friend and Orlu himself. Though Sunny's initiative is thin—she is pushed into most of her choices by her friends and by Leopard adults—the worldbuilding for Leopard society is stellar, packed with details that will enthrall readers bored with the same old magical worlds. Meanwhile, those looking for a touch of the familiar will find it in Sunny's biggest victories, which are entirely non-magical (the detailed dynamism of Sunny's soccer match is more thrilling than her magical world saving).
Ebulliently original. (Fantasy. 11-13)Pub Date: April 14, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-670-01196-4
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2011
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