A light-feeling read that effectively delves dark depths.
What begins as a relaxing summer finds middle schooler Effie discovering proverbial skeletons in her family’s closet, er…shed.
While Effie’s parents are flying the first solar plane around the world, the white girl is spending her summer on the Zook family farm with her aunt and uncle. Effie’s great-grandfather was the original owner of this farm and (fictional) inventor of the barf bag, so now the family is “well fixed.” When she meets two neighbor kids, both also white, she gets an inkling that some folks in this rural area are not fans of her family. The kids’ father, Mr. Yoder, is leader of a growing movement called Beards for America based on Effie’s great-grandfather’s “Precepts” (No. 1: “A man’s beard is a signifier of his special place in the natural order of things”), and yet the two families aren’t on speaking terms. Despite her many queries—and Effie is excellent at asking questions—the grown-ups are close-lipped about the tension between the families. After befriending the town’s only black resident, Effie reconstructs the murky history of her relatives. On the surface this feels a light, sun-dappled read, but within the depths of this story lurk compelling truths about sexism and racism that give shadow, dimension, and heft to this perky yarn. Effie’s growing awareness of her privilege and its origins is an appropriately complicated one.
A light-feeling read that effectively delves dark depths. (author’s note) (Fiction. 8-13)Pub Date: March 7, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4814-7264-7
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Paula Wiseman/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Nov. 15, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
This delightful debut welcomes readers in like a house filled with love.
A 13-year-old biracial girl longs to build the house of her dreams.
For Lou Bulosan-Nelson, normal is her “gigantic extended family squished into Lola’s for every holiday imaginable.” She shares a bedroom with her Filipina mother, Minda—a former interior-design major and current nurse-to-be—in Lola Celina’s San Francisco home. From her deceased white father, Michael, Lou inherited “not-so-Filipino features,” his love for architecture, and some land. Lou’s quietude implies her keen eye for details, but her passion for creating with her hands resonates loudly. Pining for something to claim as her own, she plans to construct a house from the ground up. When her mom considers moving out of state for a potential job and Lou’s land is at risk of being auctioned off, Lou stays resilient, gathering support from both friends and family to make her dream a reality. Respicio authentically depicts the richness of Philippine culture, incorporating Filipino language, insights into Lou’s family history, and well-crafted descriptions of customs, such as the birdlike Tinikling dance and eating kamayan style (with one’s hands), throughout. Lou’s story gives voice to Filipino youth, addressing cultural differences, the importance of bayanihan (community), and the true meaning of home.
This delightful debut welcomes readers in like a house filled with love. (Fiction. 8-13)Pub Date: June 12, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5247-1794-0
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Wendy Lamb/Random
Review Posted Online: March 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2018
Telgemeier’s bold colors, superior visual storytelling, and unusual subject matter will keep readers emotionally engaged and...
Catrina narrates the story of her mixed-race (Latino/white) family’s move from Southern California to Bahía de la Luna on the Northern California coast.
Dad has a new job, but it’s little sister Maya’s lungs that motivate the move: she has had cystic fibrosis since birth—a degenerative breathing condition. Despite her health, Maya loves adventure, even if her lungs suffer for it and even when Cat must follow to keep her safe. When Carlos, a tall, brown, and handsome teen Ghost Tour guide introduces the sisters to the Bahía ghosts—most of whom were Spanish-speaking Mexicans when alive—they fascinate Maya and she them, but the terrified Cat wants only to get herself and Maya back to safety. When the ghost adventure leads to Maya’s hospitalization, Cat blames both herself and Carlos, which makes seeing him at school difficult. As Cat awakens to the meaning of Halloween and Day of the Dead in this strange new home, she comes to understand the importance of the ghosts both to herself and to Maya. Telgemeier neatly balances enough issues that a lesser artist would split them into separate stories and delivers as much delight textually as visually. The backmatter includes snippets from Telgemeier’s sketchbook and a photo of her in Día makeup.
Telgemeier’s bold colors, superior visual storytelling, and unusual subject matter will keep readers emotionally engaged and unable to put down this compelling tale. (Graphic fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 13, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-545-54061-2
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: July 1, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2016
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