bookshelf

THE LOSERS AT THE CENTER OF THE GALAXY

Name: THE LOSERS AT THE CENTER OF THE GALAXY
Author: Mary Winn Heider
ISBN: 978-0-7595-5542-6

by Mary Winn Heider ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 16, 2021

Offbeat and poignant, this is a healing balm for living in an imperfect galaxy.

bookshelf

Winston and Louise have been in different orbits since their football player dad, who suffered from brain damage, went missing two years ago.

Lenny Volpe had been a quarterback for the Chicago Horribles. His favorite place was the 50-yard line, which he called the center of the galaxy. Winston and Louise haven’t been back to the stadium since attending a failed police press conference there. Grief-stricken, Winston fills the loss with music, specifically playing his tuba in the school band; Louise deals with it by trying to find a cure for brain injuries involving jellyfish and bioluminescence. Winston is only partially distracted from tuba when he notices odd and suspicious behavior by his teachers. Louise, absorbed by her research, is surprised to find room to fangirl wildly popular, civic-minded pop star Kittentown Dynamo and become an animal activist set on rescuing the bear that is the Horribles’ new mascot. There is a distinct Daniel Pinkwater tang to this tale of misfit siblings and their unusual circumstances. The story is interspersed with tender memories of their father, both the great dad he was and the confused person he became. The disparate strands come together in a surreal crescendo at the stadium that leaves Winston and Louise better centered than they have been for years. The book features a default White cast.

Offbeat and poignant, this is a healing balm for living in an imperfect galaxy. (Fiction. 9-12)

Pub Date: March 16, 2021

ISBN: 978-0-7595-5542-6

Page Count: 304

Publisher: Little, Brown

Review Posted Online: Dec. 14, 2020

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2021

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S FAMILY

- BOOK REVIEW
THE STUPENDOUS SWITCHEROO
by Mary Winn Heider ; illustrated by Chad Sell

- BOOK REVIEW
THE STUPENDOUS SWITCHEROO
by Mary Winn Heider ; illustrated by Chad Sell

- BOOK REVIEW
THE MORTIFICATION OF FOVEA MUNSON
by Mary Winn Heider ; illustrated by Chi Birmingham

bookshelf

TUCK EVERLASTING

by Natalie Babbitt ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 1, 1975

However the compelling fitness of theme and event and the apt but unexpected imagery (the opening sentences compare the...

bookshelf

At a time when death has become an acceptable, even voguish subject in children's fiction, Natalie Babbitt comes through with a stylistic gem about living forever.

Protected Winnie, the ten-year-old heroine, is not immortal, but when she comes upon young Jesse Tuck drinking from a secret spring in her parents' woods, she finds herself involved with a family who, having innocently drunk the same water some 87 years earlier, haven't aged a moment since. Though the mood is delicate, there is no lack of action, with the Tucks (previously suspected of witchcraft) now pursued for kidnapping Winnie; Mae Tuck, the middle aged mother, striking and killing a stranger who is onto their secret and would sell the water; and Winnie taking Mae's place in prison so that the Tucks can get away before she is hanged from the neck until....? Though Babbitt makes the family a sad one, most of their reasons for discontent are circumstantial and there isn't a great deal of wisdom to be gleaned from their fate or Winnie's decision not to share it.

However the compelling fitness of theme and event and the apt but unexpected imagery (the opening sentences compare the first week in August when this takes place to "the highest seat of a Ferris wheel when it pauses in its turning") help to justify the extravagant early assertion that had the secret about to be revealed been known at the time of the action, the very earth "would have trembled on its axis like a beetle on a pin." (Fantasy. 9-11)

Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1975

ISBN: 0312369816

Page Count: 164

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Review Posted Online: April 13, 2012

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1975

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

- BOOK REVIEW
TUCK EVERLASTING
by Natalie Babbitt ; adapted by K. Woodman-Maynard ; illustrated by K. Woodman-Maynard

- BOOK REVIEW
THE MOON OVER HIGH STREET
by Natalie Babbitt

- BOOK REVIEW
JACK PLANK TELLS TALES
by Natalie Babbitt

- SEEN & HEARD
Alexis Bledel To Read ‘Tuck Everlasting’ Audiobook

bookshelf

CLUES TO THE UNIVERSE

by Christina Li ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 12, 2021

Charming, poignant, and thoughtfully woven.

bookshelf

An aspiring scientist and a budding artist become friends and help each other with dream projects.

Unfolding in mid-1980s Sacramento, California, this story stars 12-year-olds Rosalind and Benjamin as first-person narrators in alternating chapters. Ro’s father, a fellow space buff, was killed by a drunk driver; the rocket they were working on together lies unfinished in her closet. As for Benji, not only has his best friend, Amir, moved away, but the comic book holding the clue for locating his dad is also missing. Along with their profound personal losses, the protagonists share a fixation with the universe’s intriguing potential: Ro decides to complete the rocket and hopes to launch mementos of her father into outer space while Benji’s conviction that aliens and UFOs are real compels his imagination and creativity as an artist. An accident in science class triggers a chain of events forcing Benji and Ro, who is new to the school, to interact and unintentionally learn each other’s secrets. They resolve to find Benji’s dad—a famous comic-book artist—and partner to finish Ro’s rocket for the science fair. Together, they overcome technical, scheduling, and geographical challenges. Readers will be drawn in by amusing and fantastical elements in the comic book theme, high emotional stakes that arouse sympathy, and well-drawn character development as the protagonists navigate life lessons around grief, patience, self-advocacy, and standing up for others. Ro is biracial (Chinese/White); Benji is White.

Charming, poignant, and thoughtfully woven. (Fiction. 9-12)