A sixth grader who’s struggling to find a path forward that doesn’t disappoint his adoptive father befriends a bullied boy who’s delightfully comfortable in his own skin.
His father was a talented football player, so Cyrus believes that if he doesn’t succeed on the gridiron, he won’t live up to his expectations. But last year was the first year of full tackle, and Cyrus hates it. He finds far greater satisfaction helping out alongside some friendly girls at the local animal shelter, where a stray dog that he befriended has been taken. To volunteer there he must lie his way out of practices and deceive his father, too. Meanwhile, he conceals another serious problem: Even though he reads fluently, he comprehends almost nothing. When his two football-star friends begin to unmercifully pick on puny, smart, and unconventional Eduardo, Cyrus is faced with a daunting challenge. He’s convinced he’s not brave, but can he find the courage to stand up to his friends and protect the boy he finds understands him much better than they do? Cyrus is movingly supported by his grandmother, who can no longer speak after a stroke but whose love shines through. Cyrus’ plight believably expands to seem almost insurmountable, but help comes from surprising directions in this moving, character-driven tale. Cyrus and his family seem to be white; Eduardo is Latinx.
With a strong, never-preachy anti-bullying message, this one scores a touchdown. (Fiction. 9-13)Pub Date: June 2, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-06-287811-3
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 26, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2020
Categories: CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S FAMILY
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Sentenced to a brutal juvenile detention camp for a crime he didn't commit, a wimpy teenager turns four generations of bad family luck around in this sunburnt tale of courage, obsession, and buried treasure from Sachar (Wayside School Gets a Little Stranger, 1995, etc.).
Driven mad by the murder of her black beau, a schoolteacher turns on the once-friendly, verdant town of Green Lake, Texas, becomes feared bandit Kissin' Kate Barlow, and dies, laughing, without revealing where she buried her stash. A century of rainless years later, lake and town are memories—but, with the involuntary help of gangs of juvenile offenders, the last descendant of the last residents is still digging. Enter Stanley Yelnats IV, great-grandson of one of Kissin' Kate's victims and the latest to fall to the family curse of being in the wrong place at the wrong time; under the direction of The Warden, a woman with rattlesnake venom polish on her long nails, Stanley and each of his fellow inmates dig a hole a day in the rock-hard lake bed. Weeks of punishing labor later, Stanley digs up a clue, but is canny enough to conceal the information of which hole it came from. Through flashbacks, Sachar weaves a complex net of hidden relationships and well-timed revelations as he puts his slightly larger-than-life characters under a sun so punishing that readers will be reaching for water bottles.
Good Guys and Bad get just deserts in the end, and Stanley gets plenty of opportunities to display pluck and valor in this rugged, engrossing adventure. (Fiction. 9-13)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1998
ISBN: 978-0-374-33265-5
Page Count: 233
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2000
Categories: CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S MYSTERY & THRILLER
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This engaging, heartwarming story does everything one can ask of a book, and then some.
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A Somali boy living in a refugee camp in Kenya tries to make a future for himself and his brother in this near memoir interpreted as a graphic novel by collaborator Jamieson.
Omar Mohamed lives in Dadaab Refugee Camp in Kenya with his younger brother, Hassan, who has a seizure disorder, and Fatuma, an elderly woman assigned to foster them in their parents’ absence. The boys’ father was killed in Somalia’s civil war, prompting them to flee on foot when they were separated from their mother. They desperately hope she is still alive and looking for them, as they are for her. The book covers six years, during which Omar struggles with decisions about attending school and how much hope to have about opportunities to resettle in a new land, like the United States. Through Omar’s journey, and those of his friends and family members, readers get a close, powerful view of the trauma and uncertainty that attend life as a refugee as well as the faith, love, and support from unexpected quarters that get people through it. Jamieson’s characteristically endearing art, warmly colored by Geddy, perfectly complements Omar’s story, conjuring memorable and sympathetic characters who will stay with readers long after they close the book. Photographs of the brothers and an afterword provide historical context; Mohamed and Jamieson each contribute an author’s note.
This engaging, heartwarming story does everything one can ask of a book, and then some. (Graphic memoir. 9-13)Pub Date: April 14, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-525-55391-5
Page Count: 264
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: Jan. 26, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2020
Categories: GENERAL GRAPHIC NOVELS & COMICS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES
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