Viscerally powerful and entrancing.
After intruders enter their iglu and murder his parents, an Inuit boy is taken in by his grandmother, who does everything she can to protect him.
This traditional tale relayed by Levi Illuitok, an elder from Kugaaruk, Nunavut, and translated from Inuktitut, follows Ahiahia as he grows into adulthood under his grandmother’s watchful eye, hunting caribou with a bow and arrow and shadowed by his grandmother’s dog. He avoids those in his community who wish him ill. Wearing protective amulets and a suit of raven and wolf skins made by his grandmother, he goes about his life—until the day when events escalate and Ahiahia is pursued by his enemies with seemingly deadly force. Realizing that his grandmother’s protection renders him unassailable, however, the attackers flee. Ahiahia pursues two young women who ran away from the scene of violence, taking them home to be his wives, where they live in the iglu continually supervised by his grandmother. The economical text flows well, drawing readers in and effectively capturing the rhythms of oral storytelling. It is enhanced by evocative artwork in a natural, subdued palette that brings the tundra setting to life. The beauty of the landscape, the drama of the scenes of conflict, and the emotions of the characters are vividly expressed. This offering is a rich glimpse into a body of orally transmitted stories that will encourage readers to reflect on community values, changing cultural norms, and enduring human emotions.
Viscerally powerful and entrancing. (glossary) (Graphic folklore. 13-adult)Pub Date: April 11, 2023
ISBN: 9781772274431
Page Count: 36
Publisher: Inhabit Media
Review Posted Online: Jan. 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2023
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
Riveting, brutal and beautifully told.
A devastating tale of greed and secrets springs from the summer that tore Cady’s life apart.
Cady Sinclair’s family uses its inherited wealth to ensure that each successive generation is blond, beautiful and powerful. Reunited each summer by the family patriarch on his private island, his three adult daughters and various grandchildren lead charmed, fairy-tale lives (an idea reinforced by the periodic inclusions of Cady’s reworkings of fairy tales to tell the Sinclair family story). But this is no sanitized, modern Disney fairy tale; this is Cinderella with her stepsisters’ slashed heels in bloody glass slippers. Cady’s fairy-tale retellings are dark, as is the personal tragedy that has led to her examination of the skeletons in the Sinclair castle’s closets; its rent turns out to be extracted in personal sacrifices. Brilliantly, Lockhart resists simply crucifying the Sinclairs, which might make the family’s foreshadowed tragedy predictable or even satisfying. Instead, she humanizes them (and their painful contradictions) by including nostalgic images that showcase the love shared among Cady, her two cousins closest in age, and Gat, the Heathcliff-esque figure she has always loved. Though increasingly disenchanted with the Sinclair legacy of self-absorption, the four believe family redemption is possible—if they have the courage to act. Their sincere hopes and foolish naïveté make the teens’ desperate, grand gesture all that much more tragic.
Riveting, brutal and beautifully told. (Fiction. 14 & up)Pub Date: May 13, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-385-74126-2
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: March 16, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2014
PROFILES
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