A coming-of-age story with high drama and plenty of heart.
Moving from Chicago to the suburbs turns a teenage girl’s life upside down in Doyle’s latest YA novel.
After her parents split up, Ella Bennett and her mom leave their home in the Chicago neighborhood of Lincoln Parkfor a tiny Cape Cod cottage in the Illinois suburb of Snow Ridge. When Ella first encounters fellow sophomore Grace Childs, she knows that she has nothing in common with the “tall, gorgeous, undoubtedly popular” girl who lives in the mansion next door. When Grace’s mom offers Ella a ride on her first day of the school year, it leads to an invitation to join Grace’s table at lunch; the table itself is marked with a brass plaque honoring the Childs family. The girls’ relationship takes a dark turn once Ella joins the cheer team and Grace fails to make the cut. A freak fall sidelines Ella from the squad, and it turns out to the beginning of all-out war between the new girl and the queen bee. At the same time, Ella is navigating her parents’ divorce—sometimes wisely, sometimes not. Her father’s new girlfriend, Cynthia, becomes Ella’s ally, but can Ella follow Cynthia’s questionable advice and still live with herself? Along the way, she learns who her real friends are—and what it means to be a real friend to others. As she did in Points (2020), Doyle takes the social and emotional lives of young people seriously in this novel. She explores what it means to be an outsider in a community with a long-established hierarchy while also showing how Ella adapts to her family’s new shape. Several of the choices that the protagonist makes during her feud with Grace have serious consequences, and some readers might feel like the people around her—her mom, her principal, the one cheerleader who is kind to her—let her off too easily. Other readers, though, will find her redemptive arc to be satisfying.
A coming-of-age story with high drama and plenty of heart.Pub Date: May 10, 2022
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 228
Publisher: Lang Verhaal Company
Review Posted Online: March 21, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
Exactly what the title promises.
A grieving teen’s devotion to romance films might ruin her chances at actual romance.
Liz Buxbaum has always adored rom-coms, not least for helping her still feel close to her screenwriter mother, who died when she was little. Liz hopes that her senior year might turn into a real-life romantic fantasy, as an old crush has moved back to town, cuter and nicer than ever. Surely she can get Michael to ask her to prom. If only Wes, the annoying boy next door, would help her with her scheming! This charming, fluffy concoction manages to pack into one goofy plot every conceivable trope, from fake dating to the makeover to the big misunderstanding. Creative, quirky, daydreaming Liz is just shy of an annoying stereotype, saved by a dry wit and unresolved grief and anger. Wes makes for a delightful bad boy with a good heart, and supporting characters—including a sassy best friend, a perfect popular rival, even a (not really) evil stepmother—all get the opportunity to transcend their roles. The only villain here is Liz’s lovelorn imagination, provoking her into foolish lies that cause actual hurt feelings; but she is sufficiently self-aware to make amends just in time for the most important trope of all: a blissfully happy ending. All characters seem to be White by default.
Exactly what the title promises. (Romance. 12-18)Pub Date: May 4, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5344-6762-0
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Feb. 22, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021
BOOK TO SCREEN
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