Lucy’s inimitably irrepressible manner makes her a fine guide through the shoals of early adolescence.
Change is looming for 13-year-old Lucy.
In this third entry in the series, the industrious entrepreneur turns her focus toward her personal life. Midway through eighth grade, Lucy feels driven to make her final months of middle school perfect. However, Lucy quickly discovers that the pursuit of perfection is more difficult than her entrepreneurial endeavors. While Lucy savors the successes of her eco-oriented initiatives, she experiences challenges in her personal life. The recent lack of attention from her boyfriend, Yamir, is puzzling, as is the sudden friendliness of her former nemesis, Erica. While Lucy and best friend Sunny agree to collaborate with Erica on the upcoming masked dance for eighth graders, Lucy continues to be skeptical about Erica’s intentions, wondering whether a person can really change. Also, as Yamir becomes increasingly distant, Lucy struggles to define her expectations for a boyfriend. The situation is further complicated when newcomer Travis expresses a keen interest in Lucy. Amid the ensuing confusion and heartfelt introspection, Lucy’s dating and friendship dilemmas escalate as the date of the masquerade approaches. Greenwald captures the agitation and uncertainty that come with venturing into dating and relationships. Lucy’s turmoil navigating friendships and boyfriends leads to a re-evaluation of her desire for perfection and an eventual acceptance of change—a satisfyingly realistic conclusion.
Lucy’s inimitably irrepressible manner makes her a fine guide through the shoals of early adolescence. (Fiction. 11-14)Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4197-1225-8
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2014
Eunice Williams lives the strictly controlled life of a seven-year-old Puritan child in 1704 Deerfield, in colonial Massachusetts. In a raid by the Canienga (or Macqua, or Mohawk), her entire community is kidnapped and dispersed, and Eunice eventually finds herself in a new culture, with a new family. Following her over the course of years, readers experience her acculturation with her new family, slowly learn along with her of the history and politics among the English, French and the Haudenosaunee League and witness Eunice’s transformation into a teenager who makes an ultimate choice to identify herself and thereby choose a people. First-time novelist Steinmetz indicates in her author’s note that this is a work of fiction based on actual events and that her depiction of the Canienga culture “can be only approximate” (the sources she identifies are observations from outside of the culture, and she acknowledges their limitations). As such, her leisurely paced narrative with its poetic attention to detail and insight into character may serve interested readers with a more contemporary and respectful perspective than older “Indian Captive” stories. (Historical fiction. 11-14)
Pub Date: Aug. 17, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-59643-290-1
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: June 28, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2010
An unlikely premise isn’t the weakest feature of this illogical, contrived and poorly blocked-out eco-thriller. In this devastated, Mad Max–style future, North America has devolved into warring, depopulated regions, and nearly all of the planet’s fresh water has melted into the oceans, become polluted or is tightly controlled by tyrannical governments and corporations. Teenage Midwesterners Vera and Will trek through this blasted landscape to rescue their kidnapped friend, Kai. Despite having no idea who took Kai or where they went, Vera and Will stay tight on his trail thanks to fortuitously timed help from rough-cut but heart-of-gold Water Pirates, casually murderous terrorists and a remarkably well-armed freelance desalinator. After repeated miraculous escapes from captivity or death, Vera and Will are led straight to an offshore platform where Kai and his father are being held, overhear all the political and corporate kingpins discussing their plans and get away. In a bewildering denouement, they somehow liberate the world with a televised geyser that springs from an untapped aquifer that Kai has found using psychic abilities. Huh? The high body count may keep bottom feeders engaged. (Science fiction. 11-13)
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-4022-4369-1
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Review Posted Online: Dec. 25, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2010
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