With its deft balance of play-by-play action and off-the-court drama, this series scores
Derrick “D-Bow” Bowen returns for his sophomore year at Indianapolis’ Marion East and this second volume in the D-Bow’s High School Hoops series.
Having just been edged out by archrivals Hamilton Academy last year at Regionals, this year Derrick and his teammates plan to beat them—and then some. But the season starts badly. Key senior Devin injures his ankle, and the bench just can’t compensate. Moreover, even though Derrick’s got good looks, he just can’t seem to sink that rock. He’s got troubles off the court, too: Jasmine is tired of basketball talk, and even though she seems to like making out as much as Derrick does, she’s not ready to take things further. And money continues to be tight in the Bowen household, a nagging problem that becomes a crisis when his father is sidelined by a car accident. As in series opener Next (2013), Waltman balances blazing hoops action against Derrick’s emotional growth. He and Coach Bolden continue to butt heads, but this year Derrick is better able to trust him; their developing relationship is complex and gratifying. Also nuanced is Derrick’s emerging sexuality; he learns quickly that losing his virginity comes with complications. Waltman leaves some threads dangling for future volumes: Best friend Wes is struggling with his own issues, and likable, layabout Uncle Kid’s shenanigans prompt unease.
With its deft balance of play-by-play action and off-the-court drama, this series scores . (Fiction. 12-18)Pub Date: Oct. 14, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-941026-00-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Cinco Puntos Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 19, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2014
In a morality tale with all the breeziness and exaggeration of a teen movie, an eighth-grade mean girl loses her status and becomes only slightly less mean.
The lead in the school musical and the host of an advice segment on the school's TV channel, Kacey Simon starts at the top. Then a failure to care for her new purple contacts and a fall at her friend Molly's boy-girl birthday party doom Kacey to the ultimate in loser accessories: glasses and braces. Saddled with a braces-related speech impediment along with her geeky new look, Kacey finds herself at the bottom of the pecking order. Molly and other former friends circulate a YouTube video mocking Kacey's lisp, and, somewhat unrealistically, the drama teacher immediately removes her from the school play. Luckily (and, one might argue, undeservedly), two outcasts support the fallen queen of mean. Paige, a student-government enthusiast, helps Kacey with a plan to regain her popularity. Zander, an indie rocker who wears, to Kacey's horror, skinny jeans, grudgingly accepts Kacey as his band's lead singer. Despite the book's ostensible stance against meanness, Kacey regains her social standing largely by bullying and manipulating her old friends, and the notion that glasses and braces must always spell social ruin is left unquestioned.
Pub Date: Oct. 5, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-316-06825-3
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Poppy/Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: July 5, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2011
A plucky orphan runs away to join an intergalactic circus in this frenetic science-fiction/adventure tale.
After bullies at the Bleeker Academy for Girls prevent her from attending a gymnastics competition—and thus becoming an astronaut—and a mysterious man visits her in the middle of the night, 15-year-old Beatrix Ling finds refuge with a space-faring circus. The performers aboard the Big Top are all Tinker-touched, spreading diversity and color where the descendants of the Mandate leave conformity and order. Trix’s suddenly pink hair helps her fit in, but she seems to lack superpowers like her classmates’. Trying to juggle homework—because even spaceships have school—the social scene and her budding affection for the enigmatic Ringmaster, Trix must also protect her parents’ special rock and outrun the villainous Nyl, an agent of the Mandate. The razzle-dazzle of circus life in outer space and the constant action offer plenty of distraction from the sometimes contrived plot, abundant similes and occasionally melodramatic dialogue. Fagan’s (The Magical Misadventures of Prunella Bogthistle, 2010) vibrant and tactile descriptions make for a cinematic read, and certain elements are reminiscent of such fantasy and science-fiction mainstays as Doctor Who, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and Harry Potter.
A book that reaches for the stars and provides a thrilling ride. (Science fiction. 12 & up)
Pub Date: Nov. 14, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-547-58136-1
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: Sept. 6, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2011
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