Numerous omissions and inaccuracies work against the earnest “war hurts everyone” message.
All that’s left of Ella Mae’s cousin Robby, killed in combat on Iwo Jima, are his bloodstained dog tags, but a California scientist claims that using the DNA it contains, he can reconstruct him.
Dr. Franks succeeds—except that the person he reconstructs is a young Japanese soldier, Takuma, not Robby. After Robby’s mother refuses to take responsibility for Takuma, Ella Mae’s mother brings him home over her husband’s objections (Ella Mae’s older brother, Daniel, also died in the war). Every family in their Orange County town lost a member in the war, and most blame Takuma for their loss. He’s either shunned or subjected to vicious racist taunts. Only plucky Ella Mae, her mother, and cousin Gracie offer friendship and compassion, even as Takuma’s reconstructed body fails. With her folksy narration, both Ella Mae and the rural town’s simple, white Protestant inhabitants lack credibility as Californians. This ill-conceived novel is more than just ludicrously simplistic in its science; it portrays 1952 California as devoid of Japanese-Americans. Neither the text nor the author’s note mentions the thousands forced from their homes across the western United States, including towns and farms in Orange County, and incarcerated in concentration camps (two in California), nor do they mention the heroic 442nd Infantry Brigade, whose highly decorated Japanese-American soldiers fought for the Allies while their own families were imprisoned.
Numerous omissions and inaccuracies work against the earnest “war hurts everyone” message. (Historical fantasy. 10-13)Pub Date: May 5, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-399-16775-1
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A very promising kickoff with arbitrary but intriguingly challenging magic.
A middle schooler discovers both up and down sides to being able to foretell the future.
Members of the Cleary clan in alternating generations have always been granted predictive powers on their 4,444th day of life, and Celia has been eagerly looking forward to her first vision—until, that is, it comes and reveals that cute, quiet classmate Jeffrey is slated to die in a hit-and-run. Weighing her horror against her wise Grammy’s warnings that fate is inexorable, she contrives a way to head off the accident…only to foresee another fatal mishap in his future. And another. By the time she’s saved his life five times in a row, she’s not only exhausted, but crushing on the hapless lad. (As, unsurprisingly, he is on her.) Reintgen generally keeps the tone of his series opener light, so even after Celia discovers that there’s ultimately a tragic price for her intervention, the ensuing funeral service is marked by as much laughter as sorrow. The author surrounds his frantic but good-hearted protagonist with a particularly sturdy supporting cast that includes gratifyingly cooperative friends as well as her Grammy and loving, if nonmagical, mom. There don’t seem to be many Cleary men around; perhaps that and certain other curious elements, like a chart listing particular Cleary specialties with names such as Dreamwalker and Grimdark, will be addressed in future entries. Main characters read as White.
A very promising kickoff with arbitrary but intriguingly challenging magic. (Fantasy. 10-13)Pub Date: May 31, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-66590-357-8
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
It’s great to see these kids “so enthusiastic about committing high treason.” (historical note) (Historical fiction. 10-12)
Near the end of World War II, two kids join their parents in a plot to kill Adolf Hitler.
Max, 12, lives with his parents and his older sister in a Berlin that’s under constant air bombardment. During one such raid, a mortally wounded man stumbles into the white German family’s home and gasps out his last wish: “The Führer must die.” With this nighttime visitation, Max and Gerta discover their parents have been part of a resistance cell, and the siblings want in. They meet a colorful band of upper-class types who seem almost too whimsical to be serious. Despite her charming levity, Prussian aristocrat and cell leader Frau Becker is grimly aware of the stakes. She enlists Max and Gerta as couriers who sneak forged identification papers to Jews in hiding. Max and Gerta are merely (and realistically) cogs in the adults’ plans, but there’s plenty of room for their own heroism. They escape capture, rescue each other when they’re caught out during an air raid, and willingly put themselves repeatedly at risk to catch a spy. The fictional plotters—based on a mix of several real anti-Hitler resistance cells—are portrayed with a genuine humor, giving them the space to feel alive even in such a slim volume.
It’s great to see these kids “so enthusiastic about committing high treason.” (historical note) (Historical fiction. 10-12)Pub Date: April 21, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-338-35902-2
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Jan. 20, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2020
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