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SOUL SEARCHING

THIRTEEN STORIES ABOUT FAITH AND BELIEF

This collection of 13 short stories about faith will strike a chord in teens still trying to make sense of violence carried out in the name of Allah toward Americans, yet it isn’t meant to be a reaction to 9/11. Conceived years before that tragedy, it brings together both veteran and fresh voices of YA literature and a mélange of world religions and beliefs, including Native American and Amish. It’s also not about becoming saved or finding God or Buddha or any other higher being. Rather it shows the universal need to feel connected to family, friends, and humanity. In Minfong Ho’s “The See-Far Glasses,” for example, Ling, who never really understood her grandmother’s family altar, an outgrowth of Confucian tenets, learns to value this communication with her ancestors when her grandmother dies. These stories may also clarify religious principles as in Elsa Marston’s “The Olive Grove” in which Muslim Mujahhid, having seen his brother and best friend killed by Israelis, discovers his own jihad, to struggle peacefully for his family’s rights in the midst of chaos and war. Conversely, Dian Curtis Regan’s frightening “The Evil Eye,” based on an actual Venezuelan cult, shows an organized faith in the hands of evildoers. The final story, Fraustino’s “The Tin Man,” in which patients of varying ages, sizes, and religions wait their turn for a new heart transplant, sums up the main theme expressed throughout: although faith comes with more questions than answers, life is richer and more meaningful for those who ask those difficult questions and who find guiding principles in something beyond themselves. Readers will find humor, pain, joy, and wonder in these honest, powerful stories—and hopefully tolerance, compassion, and their own questions about the world around them. (Short stories. YA)

Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2002

ISBN: 0-689-83484-5

Page Count: 288

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2002

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IF ONLY I HAD TOLD HER

A heavy read about the harsh realities of tragedy and their effects on those left behind.

In this companion novel to 2013’s If He Had Been With Me, three characters tell their sides of the story.

Finn’s narrative starts three days before his death. He explores the progress of his unrequited love for best friend Autumn up until the day he finally expresses his feelings. Finn’s story ends with his tragic death, which leaves his close friends devastated, unmoored, and uncertain how to go on. Jack’s section follows, offering a heartbreaking look at what it’s like to live with grief. Jack works to overcome the anger he feels toward Sylvie, the girlfriend Finn was breaking up with when he died, and Autumn, the girl he was preparing to build his life around (but whom Jack believed wasn’t good enough for Finn). But when Jack sees how Autumn’s grief matches his own, it changes their understanding of one another. Autumn’s chapters trace her life without Finn as readers follow her struggles with mental health and balancing love and loss. Those who have read the earlier book will better connect with and feel for these characters, particularly since they’ll have a more well-rounded impression of Finn. The pain and anger is well written, and the novel highlights the most troublesome aspects of young adulthood: overconfidence sprinkled with heavy insecurities, fear-fueled decisions, bad communication, and brash judgments. Characters are cued white.

A heavy read about the harsh realities of tragedy and their effects on those left behind. (author’s note, content warning) (Fiction. 14-18)

Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024

ISBN: 9781728276229

Page Count: 416

Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire

Review Posted Online: Jan. 5, 2024

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2024

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INDIVISIBLE

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

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