Readers nostalgic for Burnett’s Victorian world will enjoy this adaptation.
Mary Lennox, Sara Crewe, and Cedric Errol all in the same book?
Having riffed on Little Women in Jo & Laurie (2020), the co-authors now create a mashup with characters from several Frances Hodgson Burnett classics. When 16-year-old Sara arrives in England in 1865 to attend the Select Seminary for Young Ladies and Gentlemen, her brown skin has everyone talking. Sara has Irish, German, Spanish, and Filipino ancestry, and the racist treatment begins immediately. Sara, hurt by the constant remarks, nevertheless holds her head high even after she becomes a servant following her parents’ deaths and the disappearance of her wealth. Luckily, she is supported by her friends, two other school outcasts: Mary, 15, is an imaginative girl who wants to be a writer, and Cedric, 16, is an artistic boy with a condition that affects his legs. The trio escapes from the school after Mary is told she must go stay with an uncle in Knoxville, Tennessee, after her father dies. Following a failed attempt to run away to Paris, Cedric reveals that he is Lord Fauntleroy, and his lawyers help them reach his Yorkshire estate, where events play out along the lines of The Secret Garden. The writing and the characters (most of whom present White) are engaging, and there are some romantic interludes; as with the original stories, the dramatic plot at times encourages readers to suspend disbelief.
Readers nostalgic for Burnett’s Victorian world will enjoy this adaptation. (note by de la Cruz) (Historical fiction. 12-16)Pub Date: June 28, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-984812-04-9
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2022
Though it lacks references or suggestions for further reading, Arn's agonizing story is compelling enough that many readers...
A harrowing tale of survival in the Killing Fields.
The childhood of Arn Chorn-Pond has been captured for young readers before, in Michelle Lord and Shino Arihara's picture book, A Song for Cambodia (2008). McCormick, known for issue-oriented realism, offers a fictionalized retelling of Chorn-Pond's youth for older readers. McCormick's version begins when the Khmer Rouge marches into 11-year-old Arn's Cambodian neighborhood and forces everyone into the country. Arn doesn't understand what the Khmer Rouge stands for; he only knows that over the next several years he and the other children shrink away on a handful of rice a day, while the corpses of adults pile ever higher in the mango grove. Arn does what he must to survive—and, wherever possible, to protect a small pocket of children and adults around him. Arn's chilling history pulls no punches, trusting its readers to cope with the reality of children forced to participate in murder, torture, sexual exploitation and genocide. This gut-wrenching tale is marred only by the author's choice to use broken English for both dialogue and description. Chorn-Pond, in real life, has spoken eloquently (and fluently) on the influence he's gained by learning English; this prose diminishes both his struggle and his story.
Though it lacks references or suggestions for further reading, Arn's agonizing story is compelling enough that many readers will seek out the history themselves. (preface, author's note) (Historical fiction. 12-15)Pub Date: May 8, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-06-173093-1
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: March 20, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2012
A smart, timely outing.
Two teens connect through a mysterious podcast in this sophomore effort by British author Oseman (Solitaire, 2015).
Frances Janvier is a 17-year-old British-Ethiopian head girl who is so driven to get into Cambridge that she mostly forgoes friendships for schoolwork. Her only self-indulgence is listening to and creating fan art for the podcast Universe City, “a…show about a suit-wearing student detective looking for a way to escape a sci-fi, monster-infested university.” Aled Last is a quiet white boy who identifies as “partly asexual.” When Frances discovers that Aled is the secret creator of Universe City, the two embark on a passionate, platonic relationship based on their joint love of pop culture. Their bond is complicated by Aled’s controlling mother and by Frances’ previous crush on Aled’s twin sister, Carys, who ran away last year and disappeared. When Aled’s identity is accidently leaked to the Universe City fandom, he severs his relationship with Frances, leaving her questioning her Cambridge goals and determined to win back his affection, no matter what the cost. Frances’ narration is keenly intelligent; she takes mordant pleasure in using an Indian friend’s ID to get into a club despite the fact they look nothing alike: “Gotta love white people.” Though the social-media–suffused plot occasionally lags, the main characters’ realistic relationship accurately depicts current issues of gender, race, and class.
A smart, timely outing. (Fiction. 12-16)Pub Date: March 28, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-06-233571-5
Page Count: 496
Publisher: HarperTeen
Review Posted Online: Jan. 16, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2017
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