A compassionate and insightful exploration of the mysteries of imagination and the deeply personal nature of belief.
In this coming-of-age drama, three close friends struggle to understand faith, grief, and one another against the backdrop of their Orthodox Jewish community in the suburbs of Atlanta.
When Danny disappears, his best friends all process the loss in their own ways. Deenie shrouds herself in religion, Rae armors herself with rage, and Ellie, his first love and closest confidant, insists that he isn’t gone at all—indeed, she still sees him every day. Skillfully combining past and present timelines, Scheier tells a story about the occasionally contradictory natures of objective reality and emotional truth. Grief is shown in all its facets, and the girls, each weighed down by her own secrets, mourn individually as the topography of their friendship changes forever. As varied as its depictions of grief are the novel’s explorations of Jewish Orthodoxy. Each of the three main characters relates to her religious upbringing differently, and their parents, too, reflect a diversity of approaches to Jewish adulthood: Rae’s parents are largely tolerant of her unconventional choices, Deenie’s father is a beloved rabbi whom the youth of the community rely on for empathy and advice, and Ellie’s parents do their best to juggle their daughter’s desires against their own expectations for observance. Most characters are cued as White.
A compassionate and insightful exploration of the mysteries of imagination and the deeply personal nature of belief. (glossary) (Fiction. 13-17)Pub Date: Aug. 31, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5344-6939-6
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 7, 2021
The romance ultimately rises above occasional false-sounding slang to tell a story of friendship, love and determination...
Osterlund offers a believable and touching relationship between two protagonists readers will come to believe belong together.
Despite the hardship of immigrating to the United States from Mexico in elementary school, Salvador “Salva” Resendez, now a senior, is a straight-A student and the star quarterback of his football team. Having taken freshman English in middle school, he’s not happy when he’s saddled with the additional responsibility of AP English with a teacher known as “the Mercenary” instead of phys ed. Beth Courant, aka the “walking disaster area,” is also an A student—though a hopelessly disorganized one—and a gifted writer. Her pitch-perfect, third-person internal dialogue, which fluidly alternates with Salva’s, reveals grief over the loss of her grandmother and her mother’s neglect. When Salva receives a D from the Mercenary, he turns to Beth. Predictably, Salva begins to return Beth’s hitherto-unrequited crush, but what is unpredictably refreshing is the manner in which their romance unfolds. Salva and Beth both want a brighter future, but when tragedy strikes, it will take their combined strength—not just Beth’s, as the marketing copy unfortunately implies—to pull them through.
The romance ultimately rises above occasional false-sounding slang to tell a story of friendship, love and determination that will satisfy readers. (Fiction. 14-17)Pub Date: Jan. 10, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-14-241770-6
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Speak/Penguin
Review Posted Online: Dec. 25, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2013
Derivative and sometimes a little silly, but good fun nevertheless.
An unlikely teen is selected to attend Hogwarts-at-the-Pentagon.
Tom has spent most of his life casino-hopping with his ne'er-do-well father. His only real pleasure is virtual-reality gaming, and his mad skillz bring him to the attention of the U.S. Intrasolar Forces. In short order he is off to the Pentagonal Spire to train to become a Camelot Company Combatant: one of the elite teen "warriors" who pilot the remote spacecraft that wage World War III bloodlessly in space. The Indo-Americans and the Russo-Chinese are propped up by multinationals that fund the enterprise; the neural processors implanted in the kids’ brains—not to mention war itself—aren't cheap. Tom quickly makes friends (warm and funny boy, Asperger's-like girl, goofy boy) and enemies (vicious boy, borderline-crazy professor). He also comes to the attention of his mother's horrible boyfriend, an executive in a multinational that wants a pawn on the inside of CamCo. In addition to obvious echoes of Ender's Game and Harry Potter, debut novelist Kincaid weaves in hefty helpings of Cory Doctorow–like philosophy: "What, you think the American sheeple are going to question the corporatocracy?" Tom's father says memorably. With action, real humor and a likable, complex protagonist, this fast-moving, satisfying adventure also provides some food for thought.
Derivative and sometimes a little silly, but good fun nevertheless. (Science fiction. 13-16)Pub Date: July 10, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-06-209299-1
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 29, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2012
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