A touching and engaging tale with a positive message.
Jones’ YA fable presents the adventures and misadventures of a cheeky, fledgling sparrow who decides not to learn to fly, preferring to walk through life instead.
Steven Sparrow is a storyteller who keeps his young bird audiences balanced on the tips of their talons in anticipation of his next tale. But today, his story is interrupted by his mother’s call to breakfast. Today is “Flying Day”—the most important day in a fledgling’s life, when young birds leave the nest for the first time and are taught to fly. There’s great excitement in the nest until Steven makes his life-changing announcement: “I believe that I shall walk, for flying’s not my bag.” And once Steven sets his mind on something, there’s no turning back—and no consideration that maybe his idea isn’t the best one. He climbs out of the nest, makes his way through the branches and leaves of the bush they live in, and walks off to explore the world. After his first day and night away, Steven meets another creature: a tiny mouse who’s the only survivor of the “Great Attack” of a ferocious cat that devoured the rest of his family. Mouse will become Steven’s best friend on the journey that follows, which includes their capture by a young boy who’s created his own zoo—a room filled with cages occupied by a variety of small critters. Jones’ sometimes-lyrical work concludes with a poetic composition. It’s an offbeat coming-of-age tale that’s charming and creative, but also likely to be a bit emotionally challenging for younger readers, containing, as it does, incidents of chilling violence and the pain of tragic loss. However, there’s also plenty of excitement and moments of delightful humor. Mouse, despite his trauma and anxieties, rises to the challenge of being Steven’s guide; he doesn’t indulge in the verbosity of which Steven is so fond, but teaches him through his actions and compassion to look beyond his own ego. And, ultimately, during a period of great despair and self-recrimination, Steven finds redemption and joy.
A touching and engaging tale with a positive message.Pub Date: March 19, 2025
ISBN: 9781735494821
Page Count: 191
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: April 2, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A high-concept premise that falls short in its execution.
A teenage girl finds herself alone after everyone else in her town mysteriously disappears, leaving her scrambling to figure out how to find them all.
One late summer day, everybody in July Fielding’s town disappears. She is left to piece together what happened, following a series of cryptic signs she finds around town urging her to “GET THEM BACK.” The narrative moves back and forth between July’s present and the events of the summer before, when her relationship with her best friend, cross-country team co-captain Sydney, starts to fracture due to a combination of jealousy over July’s new relationship with a cute boy called Sam and sweet up-and-coming freshman Ella’s threatening to overtake Syd’s status as star of the track team. The team members participate in a ritual in which they jump off a cliff into the rocky waters below at the end of their Friday practice runs. Though Ella is reluctant, Syd pressures her to jump. Short, frenetically paced sections move the story along quickly, and there is much foreshadowing pointing to something terrible that occurred at the end of that summer, which may be the key to July’s current predicament, but there is much misdirection too. Ultimately this is a story without enough setup to make the turn the book takes in the end feel fully developed or earned. All characters read white.
A high-concept premise that falls short in its execution. (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: Sept. 19, 2023
ISBN: 9780593327173
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2023
A great read offering entertainment, encouragement, and plenty to reflect upon.
A gay teen contends with time travel—and homophobia through the decades.
All Cuban American Luis wants is to be prom king with his boyfriend, but tiny upstate New York boarding school Antic Springs Academy, with its strict, Christian code of conduct, won’t even let them hold hands in public. After a disastrous prom committee meeting at which his attempt to make the event welcoming of queer couples is rejected by the principal, Luis gets quite literally knocked into the past—specifically, ASA in the year 1985. There he meets Chaz, a Black student who attended the school at the same time as Luis’ parents and who died under mysterious circumstances after being bullied for his sexuality. Luis now faces a choice between changing the past to help Chaz and preserving his own future existence. Fortunately, he has Ms. Silverthorn, a Black English teacher and beloved mentor, who offers him support in both timelines. The narrative explores the impacts of homophobia and being closeted, remaining optimistic without shying away from the more brutal aspects. Luis is a multifaceted character with an engaging voice whose flaws are confronted and examined throughout. The solid pacing and pleasant, fluid prose make this a page-turner. Luis’ boyfriend is cued as Chinese American, and his best friend is nonbinary; there is some diversity in ethnicity and sexuality in background characters, although the school is predominantly White.
A great read offering entertainment, encouragement, and plenty to reflect upon. (author's note) (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: Jan. 4, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-5476-0710-5
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
