Gut-punching: This is essential reading.
War through the eyes of a 12-year-old Ukrainian girl.
Early one morning in February 2022, Russia begins bombing Mariupol, Ukraine, separating Dariia and her mother, who are away from their apartment, where Dariia’s father and twin sister Rada are. They find an overcrowded basement without adequate food, water, or sanitation and hunker down with others who are in need of shelter. As the city continues to be bombed week after week, survival becomes a daily struggle, but Dariia finds comfort in the company of other children, including classmate Natalia, who’s a close friend of Rada’s, and two boys named Rustem and Asan. When a direct hit kills most of the people in the basement, Dariia, her mother, and Rustem are among those who manage to escape—only to be captured at gunpoint by Russian soldiers. The children are separated and transported to a Russian camp to be cleaned up and adopted out to Russian families. Skrypuch presents the Russian propaganda that they are “rescuing” the kidnapped children from the “Nazi regime of Zelensky” in all its absurdity. Writing in searing detail from Dariia’s point of view, the author is explicit in her portrayal of the horrors of war, depicting scenes of violence, murder, racism, and destruction. This story of innocent civilians—especially children—finding the resilience to survive in a war that, at the time of this review, is still ongoing will be eye-opening for readers.
Gut-punching: This is essential reading. (author’s note, additional context) (Fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Jan. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9781546104537
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Oct. 11, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2024
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic.
Chainani works an elaborate sea change akin to Gregory Maguire’s Wicked (1995), though he leaves the waters muddied.
Every four years, two children, one regarded as particularly nice and the other particularly nasty, are snatched from the village of Gavaldon by the shadowy School Master to attend the divided titular school. Those who survive to graduate become major or minor characters in fairy tales. When it happens to sweet, Disney princess–like Sophie and her friend Agatha, plain of features, sour of disposition and low of self-esteem, they are both horrified to discover that they’ve been dropped not where they expect but at Evil and at Good respectively. Gradually—too gradually, as the author strings out hundreds of pages of Hogwarts-style pranks, classroom mishaps and competitions both academic and romantic—it becomes clear that the placement wasn’t a mistake at all. Growing into their true natures amid revelations and marked physical changes, the two spark escalating rivalry between the wings of the school. This leads up to a vicious climactic fight that sees Good and Evil repeatedly switching sides. At this point, readers are likely to feel suddenly left behind, as, thanks to summary deus ex machina resolutions, everything turns out swell(ish).
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic. (Fantasy. 11-13)Pub Date: May 14, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-06-210489-2
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
Brava!
From award winner Telgemeier (Smile, 2010), a pitch-perfect graphic novel portrayal of a middle school musical, adroitly capturing the drama both on and offstage.
Seventh-grader Callie Marin is over-the-moon to be on stage crew again this year for Eucalyptus Middle School’s production of Moon over Mississippi. Callie's just getting over popular baseball jock and eighth-grader Greg, who crushed her when he left Callie to return to his girlfriend, Bonnie, the stuck-up star of the play. Callie's healing heart is quickly captured by Justin and Jesse Mendocino, the two very cute twins who are working on the play with her. Equally determined to make the best sets possible with a shoestring budget and to get one of the Mendocino boys to notice her, the immensely likable Callie will find this to be an extremely drama-filled experience indeed. The palpably engaging and whip-smart characterization ensures that the charisma and camaraderie run high among those working on the production. When Greg snubs Callie in the halls and misses her reference to Guys and Dolls, one of her friends assuredly tells her, "Don't worry, Cal. We’re the cool kids….He's the dork." With the clear, stylish art, the strongly appealing characters and just the right pinch of drama, this book will undoubtedly make readers stand up and cheer.
Brava! (Graphic fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-545-32698-8
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Graphix/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: July 21, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2012
SEEN & HEARD
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