In this action-packed historical page-turner, destitute siblings Joe and Annie (a trance medium) escape from an apprenticeship with an abusive farmer and make their way to Manchester, hoping to find their mother. It’s 1830s England, and the kids survive with help from a self-sufficient philosophical tramp, an enigmatic Dog-woman, performers in a traveling fair and a clandestine radical newspaper publisher. Danger and abject poverty lurk in every corner of this sweeping, episodic narrative, under which swirls the author’s keen interest in the history of the urban poor and social reform. She tackles a great deal—deaths of workhouse children, the great cholera epidemic, the repeal of the stamp tax and the complicated class issues endemic to Manchester, an industrial “feudal city” on the verge of change—though often provides only a surface introduction to the complex matters of those times. It is the value of a good story that's at the heart of this adventurous 19th-century tale, and Michael via her intrepid protagonist Joe tells a swell one. (author’s note, glossary) (Historical fiction. 10 )
Pub Date: May 1, 2005
ISBN: 0-399-24357-7
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2006
BOOK REVIEW
A superb, complex romance full of heart, humor, and unforgettable characters.
Two promising Texas basketball players navigate the ups and downs of first love.
For 11th grade star players Carli and Rex, it’s love at first sight when he blows her a kiss from the free-throw line as she watches the game on the sidelines. Carli believes in magic and looks for signs in everyday life—like Rex’s kiss—to help her make decisions. Who should she live with after her parents’ divorce? What should she do with her future—one that won’t include basketball, which she knows will disappoint her father and teammates? Rex is a nature lover like his mother, who died giving birth to him. His father is distant, and inside their big, lonely house, Rex dreams of the NBA. Carli and Rex’s roller-coaster romance is rife with betrayal, heartbreak, grief, and family secrets. As narrators of alternating chapters, they are funny, smart, and unflinchingly candid. Well-written dialogue and fine attention to detail reveal Tamani’s strong insight into Gen Z life. The intensity and depth of Carli and Rex’s love story are conveyed as deftly as the high-energy play-by-plays in their basketball games. Tamani crafts layers of complexity around falling in love, making hard choices, and dealing with loss—on and off the court—in this deeply intimate story of two talented, sensitive teens. Carli, Rex, and their relatives and friends are Black; Rex’s teammates are White.
A superb, complex romance full of heart, humor, and unforgettable characters. (Fiction. 13-18)Pub Date: June 9, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-06-265691-9
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
A deftly balanced mix of history, intrigue, and romance.
Against the backdrop of World War II, four young women codebreakers put their minds together to find a serial killer.
It’s early 1943, and Arlington Hall, a one-time girls’ school in Virginia, is now the site of a covert intelligence facility where an 18-year-old former maid secretly assumes the new identity Kit Sutherland and becomes a codebreaker. A night out turns deadly when one of their own is murdered, and Kit stumbles across her body in the bathroom. Kit, roommate Dottie, and Moya, the supervisor of their floor, work alongside Violet, one of the Black girls from the segregated codebreaking unit, to bring the culprit to justice. As the budding friends turn their sharp minds and analytical abilities to covertly investigating what turns out to be a series of murders, Kit struggles to keep her own dangerous secret—and her attraction to Moya—under wraps. Meanwhile, Moya will do everything in her power to help her girls while trying not to fall in love with Kit. The novel deftly addresses questions of inequality across class, race, and sexuality in a story that combines well-researched historical background with a nifty whodunit, a strong focus on friendship, and an empowering queer romance. The narrative follows Kit and Moya, making them the better developed characters in the largely White cast. An author’s note includes many resources about the real women whose behind-the-scenes espionage work informed this story.
A deftly balanced mix of history, intrigue, and romance. (Historical thriller. 14-18)Pub Date: Sept. 20, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-316-33958-2
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: June 7, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2022
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