Nevertheless, this stands as a valuable inside peek into a marginalized culture.
Sibling rivalry is complicated by conflicting cultures in this realistic novel of a hearing girl and her deaf sister.
Most of 12-year-old Jade’s family can’t hear. Her parents, one set of grandparents and older sister Marla are all deaf and so belong to a world she can never truly inhabit. This hasn’t apparently caused much difficulty for Jade, but as her relationship with Marla becomes more contentious, the frustrations between them are amplified by this fundamental difference. McElfresh uses alternating first-person narration by Marla and Jade to tell the story. She works hard to give readers an authentic glimpse of deaf culture, including a subplot about a protest at Gallaudet University, along with descriptions of the girls’ experiences at home, on the softball field and on a brief but momentous family vacation. Brilliantly, Marla’s sections are written as if they are transcriptions of American Sign Language. (Unfortunately this interesting and creative approach could backfire, as some readers may not recognize this and will assume that Marla is incapable of using standard English grammar.) The potential impact and appeal are diluted by underdeveloped secondary characters and a plot that too often feels contrived. McElfresh’s intentions are clearly positive, as is the message she conveys; unfortunately her purpose is so obvious that it may threaten its ability to reach and enlighten young readers.
Nevertheless, this stands as a valuable inside peek into a marginalized culture. (Fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-60898-126-7
Page Count: 122
Publisher: Namelos
Review Posted Online: Oct. 30, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2012
It’s the haunting details of those around Kai that readers will remember.
Kai’s life is upended when his coastal village is devastated in Japan’s 2011 earthquake and tsunami in this verse novel from an author who experienced them firsthand.
With his single mother, her parents, and his friend Ryu among the thousands missing or dead, biracial Kai, 17, is dazed and disoriented. His friend Shin’s supportive, but his intact family reminds Kai, whose American dad has been out of touch for years, of his loss. Kai’s isolation is amplified by his uncertain cultural status. Playing soccer and his growing friendship with shy Keiko barely lessen his despair. Then he’s invited to join a group of Japanese teens traveling to New York to meet others who as teenagers lost parents in the 9/11 attacks a decade earlier. Though at first reluctant, Kai agrees to go and, in the process, begins to imagine a future. Like graphic novels, today’s spare novels in verse (the subgenre concerning disasters especially) are significantly shaped by what’s left out. Lacking art’s visceral power to grab attention, verse novels may—as here—feel sparsely plotted with underdeveloped characters portrayed from a distance in elegiac monotone. Kai’s a generic figure, a coat hanger for the disaster’s main event, his victories mostly unearned; in striking contrast, his rural Japanese community and how they endure catastrophe and overwhelming losses—what they do and don’t do for one another, comforts they miss, kindnesses they value—spring to life.
It’s the haunting details of those around Kai that readers will remember. (author preface, afterword) (Verse fiction. 12-14)Pub Date: Jan. 12, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-553-53474-0
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Sept. 15, 2015
Well-educated American boys from privileged families have abundant options for college and career. For Chiko, their Burmese counterpart, there are no good choices. There is never enough to eat, and his family lives in constant fear of the military regime that has imprisoned Chiko’s physician father. Soon Chiko is commandeered by the army, trained to hunt down members of the Karenni ethnic minority. Tai, another “recruit,” uses his streetwise survival skills to help them both survive. Meanwhile, Tu Reh, a Karenni youth whose village was torched by the Burmese Army, has been chosen for his first military mission in his people’s resistance movement. How the boys meet and what comes of it is the crux of this multi-voiced novel. While Perkins doesn’t sugarcoat her subject—coming of age in a brutal, fascistic society—this is a gentle story with a lot of heart, suitable for younger readers than the subject matter might suggest. It answers the question, “What is it like to be a child soldier?” clearly, but with hope. (author’s note, historical note) (Fiction. 11-14)
Pub Date: July 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-58089-328-2
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Charlesbridge
Review Posted Online: May 31, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2010
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