THE OTHER BOY

Name: THE OTHER BOY
Author: M.G. Hennessey
ISBN: 978-0-06-242766-3

by M.G. Hennessey ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 20, 2016

This is the story with a triumphant-but-realistic ending that trans kids haven’t had enough of. It’s challenging but not...

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Twelve-year-old Shane Woods is seriously into baseball, video games, the graphic novel he’s drawing, and a redheaded classmate named Madeline.

The white sixth-grader has been inseparable from his Chinese-American best friend, Josh Choi, since they met, but Josh can tell Shane’s distracted by something. Josh figures it’s Madeline, but Shane’s about to get a prescription for testosterone, which will allow him to start puberty and catch up with cisgender kids his age. Shane is in “stealth mode,” when a trans person keeps their gender status private until they share it with someone important to them. It’s bugging Shane that he hasn’t told Josh, but he’s still too scared. His own story is ripped out of his control when a bully finds out and spreads it around the whole school. Though his mother, a blonde, vegan midwife, is supportive and loving, after days of being the school pariah and the threat of losing everything, Shane finds that only Alejandra, a Latina trans girl he befriended in a support group, shines a light and gives him perspective. Hennessey does a good job normalizing what many people find incredibly different. The adults in Shane’s life don’t always get everything right, but they basically want to support him, which feels both realistic and aspirational. Alejandra is a valuable reminder that not all kids enjoy Shane’s privilege.

This is the story with a triumphant-but-realistic ending that trans kids haven’t had enough of. It’s challenging but not tragic, and it ends with bright, beautiful hope. (Fiction. 8-12)

Pub Date: Sept. 20, 2016

ISBN: 978-0-06-242766-3

Page Count: 240

Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: May 31, 2016

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2016

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S FAMILY

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CLUES TO THE UNIVERSE

by Christina Li ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 12, 2021

Charming, poignant, and thoughtfully woven.

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An aspiring scientist and a budding artist become friends and help each other with dream projects.

Unfolding in mid-1980s Sacramento, California, this story stars 12-year-olds Rosalind and Benjamin as first-person narrators in alternating chapters. Ro’s father, a fellow space buff, was killed by a drunk driver; the rocket they were working on together lies unfinished in her closet. As for Benji, not only has his best friend, Amir, moved away, but the comic book holding the clue for locating his dad is also missing. Along with their profound personal losses, the protagonists share a fixation with the universe’s intriguing potential: Ro decides to complete the rocket and hopes to launch mementos of her father into outer space while Benji’s conviction that aliens and UFOs are real compels his imagination and creativity as an artist. An accident in science class triggers a chain of events forcing Benji and Ro, who is new to the school, to interact and unintentionally learn each other’s secrets. They resolve to find Benji’s dad—a famous comic-book artist—and partner to finish Ro’s rocket for the science fair. Together, they overcome technical, scheduling, and geographical challenges. Readers will be drawn in by amusing and fantastical elements in the comic book theme, high emotional stakes that arouse sympathy, and well-drawn character development as the protagonists navigate life lessons around grief, patience, self-advocacy, and standing up for others. Ro is biracial (Chinese/White); Benji is White.

Charming, poignant, and thoughtfully woven. (Fiction. 9-12)

Pub Date: Jan. 12, 2021

ISBN: 978-0-06-300888-5

Page Count: 304

Publisher: Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2020

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2020

Categories:

CHILDREN'S FAMILY | CHILDREN'S SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

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NUMBER THE STARS

by Lois Lowry ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 1, 1989

A deftly told story that dramatizes how Danes appointed themselves bodyguards—not only for their king, who was in the habit...

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The author of the Anastasia books as well as more serious fiction (Rabble Starkey, 1987) offers her first historical fiction—a story about the escape of the Jews from Denmark in 1943.

Five years younger than Lisa in Carol Matas' Lisa's War (1989), Annemarie Johansen has, at 10, known three years of Nazi occupation. Though ever cautious and fearful of the ubiquitous soldiers, she is largely unaware of the extent of the danger around her; the Resistance kept even its participants safer by telling them as little as possible, and Annemarie has never been told that her older sister Lise died in its service. When the Germans plan to round up the Jews, the Johansens take in Annemarie's friend, Ellen Rosen, and pretend she is their daughter; later, they travel to Uncle Hendrik's house on the coast, where the Rosens and other Jews are transported by fishing boat to Sweden. Apart from Lise's offstage death, there is little violence here; like Annemarie, the reader is protected from the full implications of events—but will be caught up in the suspense and menace of several encounters with soldiers and in Annemarie's courageous run as courier on the night of the escape. The book concludes with the Jews' return, after the war, to homes well kept for them by their neighbors.

A deftly told story that dramatizes how Danes appointed themselves bodyguards—not only for their king, who was in the habit of riding alone in Copenhagen, but for their Jews. (Historical fiction. 9-12)