The setting comes alive in this easy chapter book, even if the characters don’t.
A young Caribbean boy meets a fantastical friend in this early reader.
Karl has big dreams: He wants to beat the island’s best runner in the 200-meter sprint and then go on to run in the Olympics. He even feels his feet cross the finish line—but, alas, he wakes up and realizes it was just a dream. Karl has a mysterious friend, however, a rolling calf named Rollie-Rollie, who appears in a terrifying “grand entrance” with the sounds of clanking iron chains—a “mad beast sprint[ing] toward Karl with fire blazing from its mouth.” In his Caribbean patois, Rollie-Rollie promises to train Karl for the Olympics: “Boy, if yuh let me be yuh coach, we could win any race on earth.” Rollie-Rollie also makes, and keeps, another promise to Karl: He will appear to his family and friends in the town square so they don’t think Karl is crazy. Along with Karl and Rollie, there are about a dozen characters in this 34-page book, most of whom are nothing but names. Some of them participate in brief vignettes that lack context: Ben takes Leonard on a walk to find mangoes; Junior strikes up a romance with a girl named Mona, etc. Readers learn nothing more and can only guess that their personalities and circumstances will be introduced in other books in the series. Yet Brown and Brown (A Turbulent Road to Heaven, 2013, etc.) pack the story with details evocative of island life: the town turning out for a footrace; eating callaloo, ackee and salt fish for breakfast; a trip to the well to fill up water drums; washing clothes by the river—even the rolling calf himself is a common spirit in island folklore, though usually not a friendly one. The book ends with a parable told by Essie, the children’s mother figure, and a moral—one will never regret a job well done—that is as disconnected as the other parts of the story.
The setting comes alive in this easy chapter book, even if the characters don’t.Pub Date: March 9, 2013
ISBN: 978-1482731507
Page Count: 40
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: June 10, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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 powerful story of family, belonging, and identity interlaced with thriller elements.
A wary teen wonders if she should run when people come looking for her.
Lucy Smith was raised by her white father, who said little about her mother. Following his death and her stepmother’s abandonment, Lucy entered the foster care system at 14. Her stepmother revealed that Lucy’s birth mom was Native American, but her social worker urged her to keep that quiet. Battered by her time in the foster care system, it’s no wonder that 18-year-old Lucy is cautious when she’s approached by a man who says he’s an attorney who helps Native American foster kids connect with their families and communities. He introduces her to a friend who reveals to Lucy that she knows her Ojibwe maternal relatives—but a wary Lucy refuses her offer to learn more. Someone is stalking her, after all, and the FBI is investigating the bomb that went off in the diner where she worked—an event she’s sure targeted her. This stand-alone from bestseller Boulley, who’s an enrolled member of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, includes characters her fans will recognize from previous works. The action scenes are mediated by ruminations on the failings of the foster care system and strong portrayals of Lucy’s relationship with her father and her complicated identity. Ardent book lover Lucy is a sympathetic narrator whose strong sense of justice is coupled with a deep acceptance of others.
A powerful story of family, belonging, and identity interlaced with thriller elements. (content warning, author’s note) (Thriller. 14-18)Pub Date: Sept. 2, 2025
ISBN: 9781250328533
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: May 30, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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