A satisfying character study that will leave readers racing to get the simultaneously publishing second installment, Janae,...
Alonge inaugurates a new basketball series set in Oakland, California, with a story featuring a young man trying to figure out basketball and life.
Who exactly is Justin Shaw? Is he “a good boy,” as his friend Omar, the Nigerian store owner, tells him? Is he “a nobody, a zero,” as he himself thinks? Maybe his imaginary headline has it right: “Simpleton Gives into Peer Pressure, Ruins Life.” Though he grew 7 inches last spring and is now 6-foot-4, at Bushrod, the local basketball court, he’s no good, “a mess of arms and legs, uncoordinated like you wouldn’t believe.” The brief novel is both a satisfying basketball story and an African-American boy’s first-person account of finding his way in the world. He’s reading Don Quixote and is kind of like the fictional protagonist, except his windmill is the social scene of Bushrod and his unfortunate, sometimes-disastrous, attempts to fit in. When Justin and his best friend put together a team to play the invincible Ghosttown team, it seems that a Rocky-style battle of underdog vs. the mighty is in the offing, but debut author Alonge plays the game just right and stays true to his protagonist, letting Justin face the giants while knowing he’s really playing for bigger stakes.
A satisfying character study that will leave readers racing to get the simultaneously publishing second installment, Janae, starring the tough, sharpshooting girl standout on Justin’s team. (Fiction. 13-18)Pub Date: June 7, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-399-54275-6
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Grosset & Dunlap
Review Posted Online: March 15, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2016
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
A thoughtful and thrilling story of life, death, and meaning.
Two teens train to be society-sanctioned killers in an otherwise immortal world.
On post-mortal Earth, humans live long (if not particularly passionate) lives without fear of disease, aging, or accidents. Operating independently of the governing AI (called the Thunderhead since it evolved from the cloud), scythes rely on 10 commandments, quotas, and their own moral codes to glean the population. After challenging Hon. Scythe Faraday, 16-year-olds Rowan Damisch and Citra Terranova reluctantly become his apprentices. Subjected to killcraft training, exposed to numerous executions, and discouraged from becoming allies or lovers, the two find themselves engaged in a fatal competition but equally determined to fight corruption and cruelty. The vivid and often violent action unfolds slowly, anchored in complex worldbuilding and propelled by political machinations and existential musings. Scythes’ journal entries accompany Rowan’s and Citra’s dual and dueling narratives, revealing both personal struggles and societal problems. The futuristic post–2042 MidMerican world is both dystopia and utopia, free of fear, unexpected death, and blatant racism—multiracial main characters discuss their diverse ethnic percentages rather than purity—but also lacking creativity, emotion, and purpose. Elegant and elegiac, brooding but imbued with gallows humor, Shusterman’s dark tale thrusts realistic, likable teens into a surreal situation and raises deep philosophic questions.
A thoughtful and thrilling story of life, death, and meaning. (Science fiction. 14 & up)Pub Date: Nov. 29, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4424-7242-6
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: July 25, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2016
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