Readers will enjoy seeing how Karma navigates the complexities of adolescence, middle school, and the 17 hairs on her upper...
Everything has been so different this year for Karmajeet Khullar.
She is worried about starting middle school, about her dissolving relationship with her white best friend, Sara, and about Sara’s new friendship with mean girl Lacy, also white. At home, she misses her beloved Dadima, who recently passed away, as she confronts changing family dynamics, with her Sikh father now the stay-at-home parent, her white mother working way too many hours at her new job, and her surly 14-year-old brother rubbing everyone the wrong way. And worst of all, dark-haired Karma has no idea what to do about the 17 hairs she discovers on her upper lip just before the start of sixth grade—and now her classmates are teasing her about her mustache (“ ’Stache Attack!”). Could it be bad karma? Debut author Wientge has sensitive, anxious Karma confronting the universal preteen problems of self-esteem, bullying, and changing friendships, with everyday details of her interracial family’s Sikh faith and culture seamlessly woven in. Although the story meanders slightly, it articulates well the protagonist’s angst, insecurities, strength, and perseverance, along with the pressures she faces.
Readers will enjoy seeing how Karma navigates the complexities of adolescence, middle school, and the 17 hairs on her upper lip in this realistic and humorous story of new friendships and family support. (Fiction. 10-12)Pub Date: Aug. 15, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4814-7770-3
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 14, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
An unsettling, engaging dream-world adventure
When pragmatic Stella’s imaginative twin brother, Cole, loses his spirit in the dream world, she must rescue him before he is consumed by shadow creatures who thrive on the creative brightness of human beings.
It begins when Cole investigates something he sees moving in the subway and becomes so spooked he leaves his treasured notebook of stories behind. Cole’s behavior swiftly changes, and Stella begins to have dreams that land her in the Dreamway, the place where all human beings go when they dream. There she encounters Anyway, a Door Mouse who just happens to possess a torn piece of Cole’s notebook. Anyway informs Sheila that her brother’s spirit has been taken by a Chimerath, and to rescue him, they must get to the Nightmare Line. Stella struggles to navigate her waking hours, during which Cole is becoming angrier and more violent, and her time in the Dreamway, where she and Anyway, with the help of a few Dreamway employees, work to find Cole before his light is completely drained. Though the worldbuilding can be arbitrary and is largely delivered in expository dumps from Anyway, this tale has a beguiling, appropriately Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland–steampunk feel. The book subscribes to the white default. Stella has a childhood stroke–induced physical disability by day; although it seems to disappear by night as she bravely traverses the unpredictable landscape of the dream world, Anyway tells her she is not healed, adding a layer of healthy realism.
An unsettling, engaging dream-world adventure . (Fantasy. 10-12)Pub Date: Oct. 30, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-06-237111-9
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 15, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2018
A richly satisfying exploration of the logic and determination with which children work to make things right. (Fiction 10-12)
When her unreliable mom is hired to cook and clean for a wealthy Alabama family, Mavis is hopeful they’ll stay long enough for her to have a best friend.
The Tullys’ daughter, Rose, is just Mavis’ age, and things looks promising, but the timid girl has been so browbeaten by her overbearing, haughty mother that she’s forgotten how to have fun. Mavis may be poor, but she has spirit enough for both of them. Rose spends most of her time with the elderly gatekeeper of Magnolia Estates, but ever since Mr. Duffy’s dog died he’s been slipping up at work, and Rose’s mother is anxious to have him fired. Mavis and Rose hatch a scheme to unite him with a stray dog they call Henry, who’s actually an escapee from Wonderland, a dog track, and who may be euthanized since his racing days are over. O’Connor, a master storyteller, presents this moving tale from the alternating viewpoints of the girls and Henry, using their unique narrative voices to craft an affecting story of loneliness and the redemptive powers of the human (and dog) spirit. The racial identities of Mr. Duffy and Mavis are kept deliberately vague (although she is pale-skinned on the cover, just like Rose), but it’s very clear that they are the underclass, evocatively contrasted against Mrs. Tully’s mistaken sense of superiority that even Rose learns to fight.
A richly satisfying exploration of the logic and determination with which children work to make things right. (Fiction 10-12)Pub Date: Aug. 28, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-374-31060-8
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2018
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