by Meg Wiviott ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 13, 2015
An incredible story, told with respect and love, this deserves a wide readership. Just have the tissue box handy.
The Holocaust: a time of unimaginable horror, with moments of incandescence.
Following her picture book with Josée Bisaillon, Benno and the Night of Broken Glass (2010), Wiviott’s debut for teens, a novel in (largely excellent) verse, tells the fictionalized but carefully researched story surrounding one of those incandescent moments. In Auschwitz-Birkenau, Zlatka and Fania, Polish, Jewish, and determined to survive, become friends and replacement sisters. In each other, and in their small group of friends, they find strength. The titular heart is a tiny thing: a folded and stitched card penciled with birthday wishes that Zlatka creates for Fania for her 20th birthday, two years after she was captured trying to pass as Aryan. It is also a massive act of rebellion for every girl involved. It is, in the end, “A reason to take risks. / A reason to keep living.” If the heart were not an actual artifact (on display in Montreal), its metaphoric aptness might seem schmaltzy, but it is real, as are the transcribed wishes interspersed among the poems. Even in the darkness, light and love can survive, as Wiviott makes abundantly clear by picking a single thread from the millions of stories that occurred and stitching in context and facts to make both the larger horror and the smaller grace shine through.
An incredible story, told with respect and love, this deserves a wide readership. Just have the tissue box handy. (glossary, historical note, bibliography) (Historical fiction/verse. 12 & up)Pub Date: Oct. 13, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4814-3983-1
Page Count: 368
Publisher: McElderry
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2015
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by Meg Wiviott & illustrated by Josée Bisaillon
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PERSPECTIVES
by Patricia McCormick ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 8, 2012
Though it lacks references or suggestions for further reading, Arn's agonizing story is compelling enough that many readers...
A harrowing tale of survival in the Killing Fields.
The childhood of Arn Chorn-Pond has been captured for young readers before, in Michelle Lord and Shino Arihara's picture book, A Song for Cambodia (2008). McCormick, known for issue-oriented realism, offers a fictionalized retelling of Chorn-Pond's youth for older readers. McCormick's version begins when the Khmer Rouge marches into 11-year-old Arn's Cambodian neighborhood and forces everyone into the country. Arn doesn't understand what the Khmer Rouge stands for; he only knows that over the next several years he and the other children shrink away on a handful of rice a day, while the corpses of adults pile ever higher in the mango grove. Arn does what he must to survive—and, wherever possible, to protect a small pocket of children and adults around him. Arn's chilling history pulls no punches, trusting its readers to cope with the reality of children forced to participate in murder, torture, sexual exploitation and genocide. This gut-wrenching tale is marred only by the author's choice to use broken English for both dialogue and description. Chorn-Pond, in real life, has spoken eloquently (and fluently) on the influence he's gained by learning English; this prose diminishes both his struggle and his story.
Though it lacks references or suggestions for further reading, Arn's agonizing story is compelling enough that many readers will seek out the history themselves. (preface, author's note) (Historical fiction. 12-15)Pub Date: May 8, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-06-173093-1
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: March 20, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2012
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by Patricia McCormick ; illustrated by Iacopo Bruno
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by Malala Yousafzai with Patricia McCormick
by Mackenzi Lee ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 16, 2021
An enticing, turbulent, and satisfying final voyage.
Adrian, the youngest of the Montague siblings, sails into tumultuous waters in search of answers about himself, the sudden death of his mother, and her mysterious, cracked spyglass.
On the summer solstice less than a year ago, Caroline Montague fell off a cliff in Aberdeen into the sea. When the Scottish hostel where she was staying sends a box of her left-behind belongings to London, Adrian—an anxious, White nobleman on the cusp of joining Parliament—discovers one of his mother’s most treasured possessions, an antique spyglass. She acquired it when she was the sole survivor of a shipwreck many years earlier. His mother always carried that spyglass with her, but on the day of her death, she had left it behind in her room. Although he never knew its full significance, Adrian is haunted by new questions and is certain the spyglass will lead him to the truth. Once again, Lee crafts an absorbing adventure with dangerous stakes, dynamic character growth, sharp social and political commentary, and a storm of emotion. Inseparable from his external search for answers about his mother, Adrian seeks a solution for himself, an end to his struggle with mental illness—a journey handled with hopeful, gentle honesty that validates the experiences of both good and bad days. Characters from the first two books play significant secondary roles, and the resolution ties up their loose ends. Humorous antics provide a well-measured balance with the heavier themes.
An enticing, turbulent, and satisfying final voyage. (Historical fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: Nov. 16, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-06-291601-3
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Aug. 31, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2021
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by Mackenzi Lee ; illustrated by Jenny Frison
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by Mackenzi Lee ; illustrated by Stephanie Hans
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