A realistic, convincing, and moving debut portrait of grief and friendship with a basketball subtext.
Fourteen-year-old Sam’s life disintegrates when her best friend unexpectedly dies.
Sam and Reagan have “been attached at the hip since” they “reached for the same bouncy ball in kindergarten.” They’re eager to start high school and try out for basketball together. When Reagan’s heart stops during a pickup game, a stunned Sam blames herself. A “zombie” during Reagan’s funeral, Sam withdraws, surrounded everywhere by reminders of Reagan. Unable to manage without her friend, Sam’s lost at school, and her grades dip drastically. Unwilling to play basketball without Reagan, Sam stops training and opts to not try out for the basketball team. Eschewing support from her parents, siblings, and schoolmates, Sam gradually realizes she may just have followed Reagan rather than making her own way. Desperate to talk to her deceased friend, Sam’s amazed when an incorporeal Reagan vocally intervenes, urging Sam to resume training, begin studying, try out for basketball, and engage with new friends. Buoyed by this contact with Reagan, Sam begins rebuilding a life without her friend. Stokes’ evocation of Sam’s crushing grief is effective; even readers will find themselves feeling claustrophobic in Sam’s head. Sam’s vulnerable, genuine first-person voice lends gravitas to her journey from debilitating loss to eventual emergence as a stronger “Sam-I-am.” Sam and Reagan present white, as does their small New Hampshire town.
A realistic, convincing, and moving debut portrait of grief and friendship with a basketball subtext. (Fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: June 5, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4998-0674-8
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Yellow Jacket
Review Posted Online: March 17, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2018
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
Poignant, respectful, and historically accurate while pulsating with emotional turmoil, adventure, and suspense.
In the midst of political turmoil, how do you escape the only country that you’ve ever known and navigate a new life? Parallel stories of three different middle school–aged refugees—Josef from Nazi Germany in 1938, Isabel from 1994 Cuba, and Mahmoud from 2015 Aleppo—eventually intertwine for maximum impact.
Three countries, three time periods, three brave protagonists. Yet these three refugee odysseys have so much in common. Each traverses a landscape ruled by a dictator and must balance freedom, family, and responsibility. Each initially leaves by boat, struggles between visibility and invisibility, copes with repeated obstacles and heart-wrenching loss, and gains resilience in the process. Each third-person narrative offers an accessible look at migration under duress, in which the behavior of familiar adults changes unpredictably, strangers exploit the vulnerabilities of transients, and circumstances seem driven by random luck. Mahmoud eventually concludes that visibility is best: “See us….Hear us. Help us.” With this book, Gratz accomplishes a feat that is nothing short of brilliant, offering a skillfully wrought narrative laced with global and intergenerational reverberations that signal hope for the future. Excellent for older middle grade and above in classrooms, book groups, and/or communities looking to increase empathy for new and existing arrivals from afar.
Poignant, respectful, and historically accurate while pulsating with emotional turmoil, adventure, and suspense. (maps, author’s note) (Historical fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: July 25, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-545-88083-1
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2017
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