A familiar story arc—best Christmas ever, worst Christmas ever, best Christmas ever—gets a shallow incarnation. Paul’s Christmas season begins with “the most beautiful, sweet, perfect girl in school” on his arm and a promised fancy red car from his parents. When his beloved old Santa hat gets lost, however, everything turns sour. His father is electrocuted hanging Christmas lights, his mother is fired, and his girlfriend breaks up with him in favor of the mall Santa. Christmas is not merely a metaphor here: every page is stocking-stuffed with details. Self-pitying and bitter, more concerned with what he’s lost than with his hospitalized father, Paul joins the Anti-Christmas Underground. His redemption at the end is surprisingly Santa-dependent. Disappointingly, Scott misses the chance to acknowledge any real reasons why Christmas could ever be disliked, and fails to separate the meaningful aspects of Christmas from the shallow. (Fiction. YA)
Pub Date: Sept. 9, 2003
ISBN: 0-385-73113-2
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2003
Editor and author Levithan winningly joins the ranks of talented authors exploring the novel-in-verse and kicks it up a notch. Though there is a progression of events in these mostly blank verse poems, it’s less a story than an examination of teenage relationships—with family, friends, self, and lovers—from every angle. Twenty distinct voices chime in with their own poem, series of poems, or cycle of songs; and several relationships and incidents are described by more than one character. No synopsis could do justice to the complexities of the interconnectedness of these characters. If high school is a dim memory for you, you might need a scorecard to keep track of who knows who and how well. However, all teenagers will find themselves, their relationships, and their attitudes toward life, love, and the pursuit of happiness somewhere in these poems. A must for YA collections used by those unafraid of poetry, strongly suggested for all others. (Fiction. YA)
Pub Date: Aug. 10, 2004
ISBN: 0-375-82845-1
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2004
A solid sophomore novel celebrating love that begs for a soundtrack.
Queer Black girls fall in love at a summer music festival.
When dating the top basketball recruit in Indiana turns disastrous, ruining her socially, emotionally, and in her mother’s eyes, perpetually in love 16-year-old Olivia Brooks begs her best friend, Imani Garrett, to take a summer road trip to the Farmland Arts and Music Festival in Georgia. Imani agrees on one condition: Olivia cannot hook up with anyone on the trip. Meanwhile, Toni Jackson is heading to Farmland for the first time without her musician-turned-roadie dad, who was killed 8 months ago. Joined by her best friend, Peter Menon (whose surname cues him as Indian), Toni is trying to figure her life out—college or something else? She believes that if she performs in the festival’s Golden Apple amateur competition, the truth will become clear. The four meet in Georgia, and when all the solo slots in the competition are full, Toni and Olivia agree to enter as a duo and help each other with their individual quests—Toni’s to perform on stage, Olivia’s to be distracted from the upcoming judicial hearing over violating behavior by her ex-boyfriend and to win the prize of a much-needed car. Although Imani and Peter feel more like devices than well-developed characters with substantial relationships to the protagonists, the exploration of Olivia’s tendency to adapt to others’ expectations of her is wonderfully nuanced, and her relationship with Toni is delightfully swoon-y.
A solid sophomore novel celebrating love that begs for a soundtrack. (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: July 6, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-338-66223-8
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 10, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2021
PROFILES
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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