A winning debut.
When a girl’s giant talent seems finished, a giant pumpkin demonstrates life’s just beginning.
Rose Brutigan, a 12-year-old white girl, towers over her twin brother in more ways than one. She’s a focused, numbers-loving cello prodigy who practices tirelessly for the upcoming Bach Cello Suites Competition. Having grown extremely tall during the school year, she’s usually regarded as the older sibling. Short, nonmusical Thomas is literally more down-to-earth. He’s obsessed with growing a huge pumpkin in their elderly neighbor’s yard. Two serious accidents caused by Rose’s recklessness, plus her musical-genius idol’s inexcusable rudeness, force Rose to acknowledge that she may never play, let alone compete, again. Enter the pumpkin. Not only does Rose become engrossed in Thomas’ project, so do others. Their multiethnic, multicultural neighbors bond as they contribute scraps to a prodigious compost pile to nourish a record-breaking pumpkin; soon, everyone anticipates another competition—for giant vegetables at the state fair. Rose’s friends and family are a marvelous group; readers will rejoice as they get to know these delightful folk and learn their many varied interests—and enormous-gourd–growing techniques. The local library and Charlotte’s Web also play pivotal roles. Rose develops in maturity and awareness about herself and others and learns important life lessons. There’s abundant warmth, humor, and heart in this charmer, and readers will root for both characters and pumpkin.
A winning debut. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-7636-9155-4
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: June 26, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
Fast-paced and plot-driven.
In his latest, prolific author Gratz takes on Hitler’s Olympic Games.
When 13-year-old American gymnast Evie Harris arrives in Berlin to compete in the 1936 Olympic Games, she has one goal: stardom. If she can bring home a gold medal like her friend, the famous equestrian-turned-Hollywood-star Mary Brooks, she might be able to lift her family out of their Dust Bowl poverty. But someone slips a strange note under Evie’s door, and soon she’s dodging Heinz Fischer, the Hitler Youth member assigned to host her, and meeting strangers who want to make use of her gymnastic skills—to rob a bank. As the games progress, Evie begins to see the moral issues behind their sparkling facade—the antisemitism and racism inherent in Nazi ideology and the way Hitler is using the competition to support and promote these beliefs. And she also agrees to rob the bank. Gratz goes big on the Mission Impossible–style heist, which takes center stage over the actual competitions, other than Jesse Owens’ famous long jump. A lengthy and detailed author’s note provides valuable historical context, including places where Gratz adapted the facts for storytelling purposes (although there’s no mention of the fact that before 1952, Olympic equestrian sports were limited to male military officers). With an emphasis on the plot, many of the characters feel defined primarily by how they’re suffering under the Nazis, such as the fictional diver Ursula Diop, who was involuntarily sterilized for being biracial.
Fast-paced and plot-driven. (Historical fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9781338736106
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2025
A worthy combination of athletic action, the virtues of inner strength, and the importance of friendship.
A young tennis champion becomes the target of revenge.
In this sequel to Legacy and the Queen (2019), Legacy Petrin and her friends Javi and Pippa have returned to Legacy’s home province and the orphanage run by her father. With her friends’ help, she is in training to defend her championship when they discover that another player, operating under the protection of High Consul Silla, is presenting herself as Legacy. She is so convincing that the real Legacy is accused of being an imitation. False Legacy has become a hero to the masses, further strengthening Silla’s hold, and it becomes imperative to uncover and defeat her. If Legacy is to win again, she must play her imposter while disguised as someone else. Winning at tennis is not just about money and fame, but resisting Silla’s plans to send more young people into brutal mines with little hope of better lives. Legacy will have to overcome her fears and find the magic that allowed her to claim victory in the past. This story, with its elements of sports, fantasy, and social consciousness that highlight tensions between the powerful and those they prey upon, successfully continues the series conceived by late basketball superstar Bryant. As before, the tennis matches are depicted with pace and spirit. Legacy and Javi have brown skin; most other characters default to White.
A worthy combination of athletic action, the virtues of inner strength, and the importance of friendship. (Fantasy. 9-12)Pub Date: Aug. 24, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-949520-19-4
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Granity Studios
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
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