Well-meaning but ultimately unsuccessful.
A high school sophomore discovers that her dreamy new artist boyfriend is suffering from mental illness.
Shy April is devastated when her outgoing and popular best friend abandons her for private school. Enter Jonah, an attractive and charismatic new student. He wins April’s heart by throwing over the resident queen bee in favor of her and inviting her to view his gallery of intense oil paintings. Soon they are inseparable, and April feels even closer to Jonah after he confesses his grief over the recent death of his best friend and his troubled relationship with his distant father. But then April starts noticing that Jonah sometimes seems to see and hear things that aren’t there, which culminates in a terrifying episode where Jonah destroys his own paintings in an attempt to silence the negative voices in his head. When Jonah is given a diagnosis, April is determined to see him through his illness, even at the expense of her own happiness. But for how long? This paint-by-numbers problem novel follows a predictable path that may initially intrigue readers curious about mental illness but will ultimately disappoint with its bromidic dialogue and sluggish pace. Better choices are Inside Out, by Terry Truman (2003), Challenger Deep, by Neal and Brendan Shusterman (2015), or the classic I Never Promised You a Rose Garden, by Joanne Greenburg (1964).
Well-meaning but ultimately unsuccessful. (author’s note) (Fiction. 12-15)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4926-1441-8
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Review Posted Online: June 22, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2015
Characters to love, quips to snort at, insights to ponder: typical Spinelli.
For two teenagers, a small town’s annual cautionary ritual becomes both a life- and a death-changing experience.
On the second Wednesday in June, every eighth grader in Amber Springs, Pennsylvania, gets a black shirt, the name and picture of a teen killed the previous year through reckless behavior—and the silent treatment from everyone in town. Like many of his classmates, shy, self-conscious Robbie “Worm” Tarnauer has been looking forward to Dead Wed as a day for cutting loose rather than sober reflection…until he finds himself talking to a strange girl or, as she would have it, “spectral maiden,” only he can see or touch. Becca Finch is as surprised and confused as Worm, only remembering losing control of her car on an icy slope that past Christmas Eve. But being (or having been, anyway) a more outgoing sort, she sees their encounter as a sign that she’s got a mission. What follows, in a long conversational ramble through town and beyond, is a day at once ordinary yet rich in discovery and self-discovery—not just for Worm, but for Becca too, with a climactic twist that leaves both ready, or readier, for whatever may come next. Spinelli shines at setting a tongue-in-cheek tone for a tale with serious underpinnings, and as in Stargirl (2000), readers will be swept into the relationship that develops between this adolescent odd couple. Characters follow a White default.
Characters to love, quips to snort at, insights to ponder: typical Spinelli. (Fiction. 12-15)Pub Date: Aug. 3, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-30667-3
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 31, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2021
Refreshing and moving: avoids easy answers and saviors from the outside.
From Sudan to Maine, in free verse.
It's 1999 in Juba, and the second Sudanese civil war is in full swing. Viola is a Bari girl, and she lives every day in fear of the government soldiers occupying her town. In brief free-verse chapters, Viola makes Juba real: the dusty soil, the memories of sweetened condensed milk, the afternoons Viola spends braiding her cousin's hair. But there is more to Juba than family and hunger; there are the soldiers, and the danger, and the horrifying interactions with soldiers that Viola doesn't describe but only lets the reader infer. As soon as possible, Viola's mother takes the family to Cairo and then to Portland, Maine—but they won't all make it. First one and then another family member is brought down by the devastating war and famine. After such a journey, the culture shock in Portland is unsurprisingly overwhelming. "Portland to New York: 234 miles, / New York to Cairo: 5,621 miles, / Cairo to Juba: 1,730 miles." Viola tries to become an American girl, with some help from her Sudanese friends, a nice American boy and the requisite excellent teacher. But her mother, like the rest of the Sudanese elders, wants to run her home as if she were back in Juba, and the inevitable conflict is heartbreaking.
Refreshing and moving: avoids easy answers and saviors from the outside. (historical note) (Fiction. 13-15)Pub Date: May 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-7614-6267-5
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Marshall Cavendish
Review Posted Online: May 1, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2012
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