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
Breathtakingly complex and intriguing.
When someone murders the renowned founder of an oppressively rigorous Washington, D.C., school, three students—all boys of color—emerge as prime suspects.
The police haul in a trio of Urban Promise Prep students, two Black and one Salvadoran, for questioning following the murder of Principal Kenneth Moore. For J.B. Williamson, Urban Promise’s strict rules and regulations are suffocating, but his luck seems to turn when he finally makes a tentative move forward with his crush. Jokester Trey Jackson, meanwhile, does his best to ensure his place in the big basketball game, and no one—not even his tough-as-nails Uncle T—can stop him. Ramón Zambrano dreams of one day owning a restaurant. In the meantime, he gets by hustling pupusas at school and refusing to succumb to pressure from his beloved cousin César, the feared leader of the Dioses del Humo gang. At Urban Promise, one false move can cost a college-bound future. Unfortunately, all three boys engaged in public spats with Principal Moore before his death; to clear their names, they must investigate and uncover the killer’s identity. In a masterful use of multiple points of view from both the main protagonists and secondary characters, Brooks weaves a tale of intrigue, doubt, and hearsay with ease, doling out crucial tidbits and clues. Each gradual reveal prods readers to reconsider and reassess. Featuring a sharp examination of systemic inequality in urban schools and Black and Latine boyhood, this novel delivers in spades.
Breathtakingly complex and intriguing. (Mystery. 14-18)Pub Date: Jan. 31, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-250-86697-4
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Nov. 15, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2022
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