Scaletta’s expertly voiced narrative offers an experience of Africa—specifically, Monrovia, Liberia, in 1982—through the eyes of Linus, a Dayton, Ohio, seventh grader whose family has just arrived for a diplomatic posting. Self-conscious and more than a little bit anxious, Linus is ready to embrace his more courageous side. Amazingly, his braver version turns out to have a surprising spiritual connection to the deadly, rarely seen black mamba. The culture, politics and economy of 1980s Liberia are conveyed through the clear-eyed but skewed filter of Linus’s young understanding. The sights, smells and sounds compete nearly equally for Linus’s attention with his desire for friends and his delight in his family’s acquisition of a new Atari system. The author gets exactly right the mix of the familiar and the entirely unfamiliar as well as the terror that makes even close encounters with the world’s deadliest snake only an also-ran next to looming adolescence. Linus eventually begins to sort out his place in the world—or at least in his area of influence—in a tale tinted with magical realism that is by turns scary and very funny. (Fiction. 11-14)
Pub Date: July 13, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-375-86180-2
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 31, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2010
Every first date should be this charming.
A seventh grader invites a celebrity to the school dance.
Danny Constantino was best friends with Natalie Flores Griffin throughout primary school. When Natalie went on to become a famous child star in Hollywood, the pair emailed back and forth for a bit, but the emails eventually stopped. Three years later, Danny’s dealing with the loss of his childhood dog and a mom who’s running for mayor. Luckily for Danny, the big dance is coming up and Natalie has accepted his emailed invitation to be his date…and everyone is losing it. Danny’s mom wants to use her in the mayoral campaign. Danny’s principal wants to get Natalie to take part in the pep rally. Danny’s friends want her to go trick-or-treating with them. Danny juggles everyone’s desires as best he can while reconnecting with an old friend who hoped for nothing more than a few days out of the spotlight. Danny and Natalie’s blossoming romance is well drawn, and Acampora steers clear of treacle territory with deft deployment of subplots. The book’s structure is a bit uneven, and some of the supporting players are thinly developed, but Danny’s relationships with his grandmother, his mother, and Natalie reinforce one another, painting a strong portrait of a young boy coming in to his own with the help of three strong female characters. Danny and Natalie seem to present white, but Danny has several friends of color.
Every first date should be this charming. (Fiction. 11-13)Pub Date: July 14, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-1661-0
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: March 24, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Gritty and suspenseful, this atmospheric fairy tale will capture the hearts of sturdy middle-grade readers.
A young girl uncovers an incredible, terrifying secret inside a forbidding, ominous house perched on the edge of the sea.
Ever since Lampie’s mother died, lighthouse keeper Augustus has drunk himself into debt and hurls his anger at Lampie. When a ship is wrecked, father and daughter are blamed for carelessly running out of matches to light the lamp. Augustus is imprisoned in his lighthouse, and illiterate Lampie must be a servant for seven years in the sinister Black House, rumored to harbor a monster. What Lampie discovers in the high tower room is not what she expects, but Lampie is her mother’s daughter, with resiliency to survive in the face of relentless cruelty and despair. The story is billed as a sequel to “The Little Mermaid,” but the ties to Han Christian Andersen’s classic fairy tale are not apparent until well into it. However, elements of The Secret Garden and “Beauty and the Beast” are evident throughout, enticing readers hungry for new yet classic-feeling books. Translated from Dutch, the third-person narration moves seamlessly, transitioning from character to character, drawing parallels, and setting up juxtapositions that further illuminate the characters’ motivations and growth. Many of the adults in this book are damaged, mentally and physically, and this affects most cruelly the children in their lives. Characters seem to be assumed white.
Gritty and suspenseful, this atmospheric fairy tale will capture the hearts of sturdy middle-grade readers. (Historical suspense. 11-14)Pub Date: Oct. 13, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-62354-230-6
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Charlesbridge
Review Posted Online: May 16, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2020
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