While characters with mixed heritages are increasingly visible in teen literature, their experience in a rapidly shifting...
A school assignment to research his family tree sends Vee (named for the letter) on a journey of discovery, real and metaphorical, hilarious and moving, that’s as much about the future as the past.
Future anthropologist and basketballer-wannabe Vee knows he’s an underachiever, thanks. Unlike his best friend Madison (Miao-ling at home), Vee doesn’t conform to the Asian-nerd stereotype. (He blames his heritage: Chinese immigrant dad and tall, blonde Texan mom.) They’re great parents, but their families are a taboo topic. Life’s not all bad—managing the girls’ basketball team has a lot going for it, like gorgeous but inaccessible senior Adele. Still, frustrations mount. Obsessed with digging up his roots and stonewalled by his parents, Vee enlists Madison’s help. She can’t help it if she looks like his father’s child more than Vee does and speaks Mandarin at home. (In Vee’s family, English is the common language.) Like the rounded characters, the plot avoids cliché and oversimplification. Life is a balancing act, Vee finds, in this book that belongs on every multicultural reading list. Knowing where we come from matters, but assigning too much power to ancestry can be more limiting than illuminating.
While characters with mixed heritages are increasingly visible in teen literature, their experience in a rapidly shifting cultural landscape is seldom explored in depth. This first-rate debut does exactly that. (Fiction. 12 & up)Pub Date: July 23, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4424-1264-4
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2013
An ode to the children of migrants who have been taken away.
A Mexican American boy takes on heavy responsibilities when his family is torn apart.
Mateo’s life is turned upside down the day U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents show up unsuccessfully seeking his Pa at his New York City bodega. The Garcias live in fear until the day both parents are picked up; his Pa is taken to jail and his Ma to a detention center. The adults around Mateo offer support to him and his 7-year-old sister, Sophie, however, he knows he is now responsible for caring for her and the bodega as well as trying to survive junior year—that is, if he wants to fulfill his dream to enter the drama program at the Tisch School of the Arts and become an actor. Mateo’s relationships with his friends Kimmie and Adam (a potential love interest) also suffer repercussions as he keeps his situation a secret. Kimmie is half Korean (her other half is unspecified) and Adam is Italian American; Mateo feels disconnected from them, less American, and with worries they can’t understand. He talks himself out of choosing a safer course of action, a decision that deepens the story. Mateo’s self-awareness and inner monologue at times make him seem older than 16, and, with significant turmoil in the main plot, some side elements feel underdeveloped. Aleman’s narrative joins the ranks of heart-wrenching stories of migrant families who have been separated.
An ode to the children of migrants who have been taken away. (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: May 4, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-7595-5605-8
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 22, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
There’s not much plot here, but readers will relish the opportunity to climb inside Autumn’s head.
The finely drawn characters capture readers’ attention in this debut.
Autumn and Phineas, nicknamed Finny, were born a week apart; their mothers are still best friends. Growing up, Autumn and Finny were like peas in a pod despite their differences: Autumn is “quirky and odd,” while Finny is “sweet and shy and everyone like[s] him.” But in eighth grade, Autumn and Finny stop being friends due to an unexpected kiss. They drift apart and find new friends, but their friendship keeps asserting itself at parties, shared holiday gatherings and random encounters. In the summer after graduation, Autumn and Finny reconnect and are finally ready to be more than friends. But on August 8, everything changes, and Autumn has to rely on all her strength to move on. Autumn’s coming-of-age is sensitively chronicled, with a wide range of experiences and events shaping her character. Even secondary characters are well-rounded, with their own histories and motivations.
There’s not much plot here, but readers will relish the opportunity to climb inside Autumn’s head. (Fiction. 14 & up)Pub Date: April 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4022-7782-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
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