The votes are in: This one is a winner.
Poplar Lane’s seventh-graders are back for a second outing following Payback on Poplar Lane (2018), exploring magic, manipulation, and politics.
Clover, a popular girl, and Mike, a budding magician, are both nominated to run for class president. New kid Amelia, a self-described “wonk,” and Peter, a fervent entrepreneur, are running Mike’s campaign, while Clover’s best friend, Rachel, is managing hers. Unfortunately, Mike’s managers craft an image of the candidate that’s mostly deceitful, turning him from a boy who’s happy to sit quietly with headphones on, comfortably blocking out the world, to a glad-handing, baby-kissing fraud. He’s only running so he can use the election to help him get into magic camp. Clover is using her campaign to try to restore her connection to Rachel, who’s become friends with Amelia, leaving her feeling excluded. The story is presented in the nicely distinct alternating voices of Clover, who’s the second of five sisters and also coming to grips with her mother’s newest pregnancy, and Mike, who’s sure his father is disappointed in him for not being athletic. Mike is black, standing out among the mostly white central cast. In a refreshing variation on most middle school fiction, all of the kids have good points and bad, creating a full roster of believably rounded characters navigating sometimes-silly situations, rich with droll, timely humor.
The votes are in: This one is a winner. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Feb. 12, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-425-29093-4
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Dec. 10, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
A worthy combination of athletic action, the virtues of inner strength, and the importance of friendship.
A young tennis champion becomes the target of revenge.
In this sequel to Legacy and the Queen (2019), Legacy Petrin and her friends Javi and Pippa have returned to Legacy’s home province and the orphanage run by her father. With her friends’ help, she is in training to defend her championship when they discover that another player, operating under the protection of High Consul Silla, is presenting herself as Legacy. She is so convincing that the real Legacy is accused of being an imitation. False Legacy has become a hero to the masses, further strengthening Silla’s hold, and it becomes imperative to uncover and defeat her. If Legacy is to win again, she must play her imposter while disguised as someone else. Winning at tennis is not just about money and fame, but resisting Silla’s plans to send more young people into brutal mines with little hope of better lives. Legacy will have to overcome her fears and find the magic that allowed her to claim victory in the past. This story, with its elements of sports, fantasy, and social consciousness that highlight tensions between the powerful and those they prey upon, successfully continues the series conceived by late basketball superstar Bryant. As before, the tennis matches are depicted with pace and spirit. Legacy and Javi have brown skin; most other characters default to White.
A worthy combination of athletic action, the virtues of inner strength, and the importance of friendship. (Fantasy. 9-12)Pub Date: Aug. 24, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-949520-19-4
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Granity Studios
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
Cinematic, over-the-top decadence, a tense race against time, and lessons on what’s truly valuable.
A reward of $5,000,000 almost ruins everything for two seventh graders.
On a class trip to New York City, Felix and Benji find a wallet belonging to social media billionaire Laura Friendly. Benji, a well-off, chaotic kid with learning disabilities, swipes $20 from the wallet before they send it back to its owner. Felix, a poor, shy, rule-follower, reluctantly consents. So when Laura Friendly herself arrives to give them a reward for the returned wallet, she’s annoyed. To teach her larcenous helpers a lesson, Laura offers them a deal: a $20,000 college scholarship or slightly over $5 million cash—but with strings attached. The boys must spend all the money in 30 days, with legal stipulations preventing them from giving anything away, investing, or telling anyone about it. The glorious windfall quickly grows to become a chore and then a torment as the boys appear increasingly selfish and irresponsible to the adults in their lives. They rent luxury cars, hire a (wonderful) philosophy undergrad as a chauffeur, take their families to Disney World, and spend thousands on in-app game purchases. Yet, surrounded by hedonistically described piles of loot and filthy lucre, the boys long for simpler fundamentals. The absorbing spending spree reads like a fun family film, gleefully stuffed with the very opulence it warns against. Major characters are White.
Cinematic, over-the-top decadence, a tense race against time, and lessons on what’s truly valuable. (mathematical explanations) (Fiction. 10-12)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-17525-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: June 29, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2020
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