A funny, moving tale, at once unsparingly realistic and upbeat.
Hadley, 12, legally blind, angry, and not a lover of dogs unexpectedly bonds with Lila, a depressed pit bull waif.
Hadley feels as if she’s lost everything, and now she’s losing her sight. With her mom in prison, she must move to Kentucky to live with her estranged older sister, Beth, last seen when Hadley was 7. Accompanying Beth, a dog trainer, to Right Choice Rescue and wandering among the penned trainees, Hadley spots Lila, considered unadoptable, looking equally miserable. Observing them connect, Vanessa, the owner, talks Beth into taking Lila home for Hadley to train. Still furious with Beth and their mom, whose letters and phone calls she ignores, Hadley works with Lila and grudgingly allows Beth to guide the training. Her vision worsening (she has retinitis pigmentosa), Hadley eventually agrees to mobility classes. Learning to use a cane is challenging, especially while holding Lila’s leash in one hand. Her persistence—Hadley’s strong suit—is a plus. New skills breed independence and self-esteem. Hadley becomes less defensive and judgmental, and the sisters haltingly reconnect—then Vanessa, now Beth’s girlfriend, says it’s time to find Lila a home. (Vanessa is black; Hadley and family are presumed white.) It’s a pleasure to watch smart, wryly self-aware Hadley turn obstinacy into strength. From glum to stubborn and affectionate, Lila radiates doggy authenticity. A former Kentuckian and legally blind, Keplinger knows this territory, literal and figurative, inside out.
A funny, moving tale, at once unsparingly realistic and upbeat. (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: April 7, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-338-30609-5
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Dec. 7, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
Supernatural mystery meets generational drama with hopeful endings for all.
Eleven-year-old Frank must solve a supernatural mystery to save his new home.
As fifth grade comes to an end, Frank Fernández is looking forward to finally staying put in Alabama for a second year, as promised, after a childhood spent following his parents’ home renovation work all across the country. Frequent relocation has made Frank wary of forming friendships or making plans, but his hopes for more stability are temporarily dashed when his parents announce plans to renovate a lighthouse in the Florida Keys, near where his mother grew up and his father’s home country of Cuba. Papi promises this will be their last move, though: The lighthouse will be theirs. But from their first day on Spectacle Key, things seem to go wrong: Tensions rise between his parents, and Frank’s hopes of a forever home are under threat from seemingly supernatural forces. In order to put down roots, Frank and new ghostly friend Connie, a White girl with freckles, must discover what secrets the island is hiding, uncovering Frank’s own family roots along the way. Frank is a fan of horror—he names his new Great Dane puppy Mary Shelley. But though there is some mild peril to be found, rather than a ghostly thriller, this is an appealing, lightly spooky family drama with valuable lessons for those who would hide from a difficult past instead of confronting and healing generational trauma.
Supernatural mystery meets generational drama with hopeful endings for all. (Supernatural. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 6, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-06-313481-2
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 12, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
Delightfully weird and whimsical.
A 13-year-old girl and a colony of bats overcome losses in this middle-grade debut from Ready Player One author Cline.
After Opal B. Flats’ mother dies, she goes to live with Uncle Roscoe on the family farm in the Texas Hill Country. Her first night there, she has an alien encounter and subsequently discovers that she can communicate with the Mexican free-tailed bats living in a nearby cave. Their connection becomes essential when Opal, Uncle Roscoe, and the bats, through differing circumstances, are forced to find new homes. Opal and Uncle Roscoe, who read white, convince the bats to accompany them to Austin, “the only place in this whole stone-hearted state where weirdos are welcome!” If Opal and Uncle Roscoe have a slow start with fitting in, it’s even more difficult for a colony of over a million bats, especially when prejudice against them is being systematically reinforced by a greedy councilman whose pesticide business suffers when the bats start eating insects. The third-person narration unfolds in a homey style that’s colored with references to music and famous names that contribute to the sense of place, including Ann Richards, Selena, and Willie Nelson. Entries from Opal’s scrapbook are interspersed throughout. Readers will be relieved that, despite the hardships Opal and the bats must overcome, they ultimately prevail, succeeding in making friends and new homes for themselves in this celebratory primer on bats and belonging. Westell’s delicate, atmospheric illustrations greatly enhance the text.
Delightfully weird and whimsical. (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: April 9, 2024
ISBN: 9780316460583
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2024
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