Filled with teachable moments that are perfect for modern-day discussions of race and justice, this is also a story about...
Race, police brutality, and a justice system that won’t hold guilty white men accountable for menacing fellow black citizens—topical current events reveal their gnarled, bitter roots.
In this sequel to Midnight Without a Moon (2017), a story that followed the horrific lynching of Emmett Till, Jackson continues the tale. It’s Stillwater, Mississippi, in November 1955. Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam have been acquitted of Till’s murder despite several witnesses to their crime. The boy’s purported crime was whistling at a white woman. His sentence was death. Rose “Rosa” Lee Carter is a 13-year-old black girl struggling to make sense of her world in the aftermath of such a blatant miscarriage of justice. The story of racial injustice in the Deep South feels all the more wicked told through the eyes of a young girl. Rosa Lee’s coming-of-age during the turbulent era shows her quest for survival—within her family, as a young black woman, as a soul burning for justice. Jackson sensitively shows how Rosa changes from a girl consumed with shame—for her dark skin, for her grandmother Ma Pearl’s cruelty, and for her mother’s abandonment—into a girl learning to take pride in herself and what she brings to the world.
Filled with teachable moments that are perfect for modern-day discussions of race and justice, this is also a story about the complexities of family and choices . (Historical fiction. 10-12)Pub Date: Jan. 2, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-544-80065-6
Page Count: 320
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 15, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
On equal footing with a garden-variety potato.
The new kid in school endures becoming the school mascot.
Ben Hardy has never cared for potatoes, and this distaste has become a barrier to adjusting to life in his new Idaho town. His school’s mascot is the Spud, and after a series of misfortunes, Ben is enlisted to don the potato costume and cheer on his school’s team. Ben balances his duties as a life-sized potato against his desperate desire to hide the fact that he’s the dork in the suit. After all, his cute new crush, Jayla, wouldn’t be too impressed to discover Ben’s secret. The ensuing novel is a fairly boilerplate middle–grade narrative: snarky tween protagonist, the crush that isn’t quite what she seems, and a pair of best friends that have more going on than our hero initially believes. The author keeps the novel moving quickly, pushing forward with witty asides and narrative momentum so fast that readers won’t really mind that the plot’s spine is one they’ve encountered many times before. Once finished, readers will feel little resonance and move on to the next book in their to-read piles, but in the moment the novel is pleasant enough. Ben, Jayla, and Ben’s friend Hunter are white while Ellie, Ben’s other good pal, is Latina.
On equal footing with a garden-variety potato. (Fiction. 10-12)Pub Date: March 24, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-11866-5
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Nov. 23, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
It’s great to see these kids “so enthusiastic about committing high treason.” (historical note) (Historical fiction. 10-12)
Near the end of World War II, two kids join their parents in a plot to kill Adolf Hitler.
Max, 12, lives with his parents and his older sister in a Berlin that’s under constant air bombardment. During one such raid, a mortally wounded man stumbles into the white German family’s home and gasps out his last wish: “The Führer must die.” With this nighttime visitation, Max and Gerta discover their parents have been part of a resistance cell, and the siblings want in. They meet a colorful band of upper-class types who seem almost too whimsical to be serious. Despite her charming levity, Prussian aristocrat and cell leader Frau Becker is grimly aware of the stakes. She enlists Max and Gerta as couriers who sneak forged identification papers to Jews in hiding. Max and Gerta are merely (and realistically) cogs in the adults’ plans, but there’s plenty of room for their own heroism. They escape capture, rescue each other when they’re caught out during an air raid, and willingly put themselves repeatedly at risk to catch a spy. The fictional plotters—based on a mix of several real anti-Hitler resistance cells—are portrayed with a genuine humor, giving them the space to feel alive even in such a slim volume.
It’s great to see these kids “so enthusiastic about committing high treason.” (historical note) (Historical fiction. 10-12)Pub Date: April 21, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-338-35902-2
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Jan. 20, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2020
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