Pass on this one.
Historical fiction about the high-fashion tailoring studio where Nazis enslaved prisoners on the grounds of Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Ella is a yellow star–wearing prisoner at the camp she calls Birchwood, where she’s managed to get a labor assignment in the tailoring studio. Though the “prominent” (a fellow prisoner empowered to boss around other inmates) can be cruel, it’s a safer task than many of the jobs available at the death camp. Ella’s lied about her age to get the position, but she hasn’t had to lie about her talent; she is genuinely a smashing seamstress. Ella’s sometimes-unbelievable naiveté about the camp (she asks when she can write to her grandmother at home) enables her to willfully ignore how much her dressmaking enthusiasm smacks of collaboration. Not so her friend Rose, a political prisoner and fellow dressmaker. Unlike Ella, Rose understands that their supplies are stolen from the Nazi’s victims. Though Ella’s eyes eventually open to horror, especially as Rose’s health falters and Birchwood descends into chaos in the waning days of the war, her unreliability as a narrator makes the camps appear less horrific than the reality. The avoidance of specific references to Jews or Germany in a story about atrocities that targeted very specific groups of people strips this Holocaust narrative of both believability and historical accuracy.
Pass on this one. (afterword) (Historical fiction. 12-14)Pub Date: Sept. 11, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5362-0104-8
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: July 16, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Too short to allow for any real character development or complex moral thought; don’t recruit this one for your library.
A young man serves in a secret unit during the Vietnam War.
Danny Manion is an impulsive hothead, one who brawls with his brothers even though he knows it disappoints his polio survivor father. After he steals a motorcycle, his wrestling coach and idol, Mr. Macias, arranges with the judge for Danny to join the Army, with Mr. Macias as his colonel. But instead of serving in a noncombat position in Thailand like he tells his father, Danny is actually part of a special ops unit illegally fighting in Laos. Through injuries and missions gone wrong, Danny grows and learns from his colonel and his fellow soldiers—even though they all come across like teen sociopaths, with statements like “Truth is, there are no rules here. It’s glorious,” and “We’re here to kill everything.” Danny exhibits more concern about a fellow soldier shooting an elephant than about killing people, and the Meo characters who help their unit aren't even called by their proper names. With the violent nature of war as depicted, the overall slimness of the novel, and without any historical notes to provide context, Danny’s story feels underdeveloped and overly simplistic even for younger teens. Danny and his family are white; his close friend and fellow soldier is named Lopez.
Too short to allow for any real character development or complex moral thought; don’t recruit this one for your library. (Historical fiction. 12-14)Pub Date: Nov. 27, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-545-86162-5
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Aug. 19, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2018
Comfortable-if-clumsy sci-fi trilogy concludes with a serviceable fan-fiction vibe
Can the superpowered space teen rescue his hot military boyfriend, defeat the baddies, and save his found family?
Ren—a technopath and star host—was dead not that long ago, but no longer. Though his shipmates rescued him and his star host powers saved him, they’ve lost Asher, Ren’s boyfriend, and (female) Capt. Rowan’s brother, to the Phoenix Corps. Even once they rescue Asher, their work is far from complete. Ren’s kid brother, also a star host, is still a prisoner. The Phoenix Corps wants to arrest the entire crew. The anti-Corps rebels, led by Ren’s old nemeses, are busily conquering space stations. Scariest of all, Ren, more powerful than all the other star hosts, doesn’t know if he can control his growing powers. The trite and repetitive prose, sometimes lacking in sense, detracts from the excitement; even the quippiness, the inapt cultural jokes, and the romantic feels are too thinly sketched. But it’s still too rare for YA space opera to star a gay couple, and the adventures don’t need to make sense to be cinematic, so this isn’t a definite miss. Asher and Ren are assumed white, and there is some diversity in background characters although it is not developed.
Comfortable-if-clumsy sci-fi trilogy concludes with a serviceable fan-fiction vibe . (Science fiction. 12-14)Pub Date: Oct. 11, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-945053-76-4
Page Count: 258
Publisher: Duet
Review Posted Online: Aug. 19, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2018
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