by Mia Kerick ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 20, 2014
A well-written YA novel that balances honest storytelling with a strong anti-bullying message.
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A would-be heroic high school junior comes to terms with both his sexuality and his behavior toward others.
In this YA novel, Kerick (Love Spell, 2015) tells the story of jock Bryan, who wakes up one morning with an urge to put on a Superman-style cape and “help those in need.” He makes an effort to be nice to his mother, rescues a kitten from a tree, and even fights for environmentally friendly packaging for his breakfast sandwich—but he has no memory of something crucial that happened at a party the previous weekend or of his secret relationship with his classmate Scott. As Bryan tries to figure out what he did wrong, he also decides to reject the bullying of his basketball team friends, become a part of the greater community, and reconnect with his estranged father. As he gradually comes to terms with what he did, he develops a new maturity and responsibility and becomes someone Scott can love in return. The snappy, clever narrative voice can be grating at times, particularly early in the story (“In fact, if I wasn’t the absolute highest man on the Appleton High School jock totem pole…I was a respectable distance north on that pole”). However, the tone evolves along with Bryan and eventually becomes endearing (“You see, as a kid, I’d been secretly petrified of Santa Claus, since I’d always been confident that I was on his ‘The Very Naughtiest Boys in America’ list”). Bryan’s emotional growth and coming-out story are handled well, without an excess of sentimentality, which would be implausible in a determinedly macho teenage boy. The anti-bullying themes, though clear, aren’t presented in a didactic way and never overwhelm the narrative, making the book an enjoyable one for readers willing to have patience during the early pages.
A well-written YA novel that balances honest storytelling with a strong anti-bullying message.Pub Date: Feb. 20, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-62798-721-9
Page Count: 190
Publisher: Harmony Ink
Review Posted Online: Aug. 27, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by Louis Sachar ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 1998
Good Guys and Bad get just deserts in the end, and Stanley gets plenty of opportunities to display pluck and valor in this...
Sentenced to a brutal juvenile detention camp for a crime he didn't commit, a wimpy teenager turns four generations of bad family luck around in this sunburnt tale of courage, obsession, and buried treasure from Sachar (Wayside School Gets a Little Stranger, 1995, etc.).
Driven mad by the murder of her black beau, a schoolteacher turns on the once-friendly, verdant town of Green Lake, Texas, becomes feared bandit Kissin' Kate Barlow, and dies, laughing, without revealing where she buried her stash. A century of rainless years later, lake and town are memories—but, with the involuntary help of gangs of juvenile offenders, the last descendant of the last residents is still digging. Enter Stanley Yelnats IV, great-grandson of one of Kissin' Kate's victims and the latest to fall to the family curse of being in the wrong place at the wrong time; under the direction of The Warden, a woman with rattlesnake venom polish on her long nails, Stanley and each of his fellow inmates dig a hole a day in the rock-hard lake bed. Weeks of punishing labor later, Stanley digs up a clue, but is canny enough to conceal the information of which hole it came from. Through flashbacks, Sachar weaves a complex net of hidden relationships and well-timed revelations as he puts his slightly larger-than-life characters under a sun so punishing that readers will be reaching for water bottles.
Good Guys and Bad get just deserts in the end, and Stanley gets plenty of opportunities to display pluck and valor in this rugged, engrossing adventure. (Fiction. 9-13)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1998
ISBN: 978-0-374-33265-5
Page Count: 233
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2000
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by Louis Sachar ; illustrated by Tim Heitz
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by Emily Winfield Martin ; illustrated by Emily Winfield Martin ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 25, 2015
Wonderful, indeed
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A love song to baby with delightful illustrations to boot.
Sweet but not saccharine and singsong but not forced, Martin’s text is one that will invite rereadings as it affirms parental wishes for children while admirably keeping child readers at its heart. The lines that read “This is the first time / There’s ever been you, / So I wonder what wonderful things / You will do” capture the essence of the picture book and are accompanied by a diverse group of babies and toddlers clad in downright adorable outfits. Other spreads include older kids, too, and pictures expand on the open text to visually interpret the myriad possibilities and hopes for the depicted children. For example, a spread reading “Will you learn how to fly / To find the best view?” shows a bespectacled, school-aged girl on a swing soaring through an empty white background. This is just one spread in which Martin’s fearless embrace of the white of the page serves her well. Throughout the book, she maintains a keen balance of layout choices, and surprising details—zebras on the wallpaper behind a father cradling his child, a rock-’n’-roll band of mice paralleling the children’s own band called “The Missing Teeth”—add visual interest and gentle humor. An ideal title for the baby-shower gift bag and for any nursery bookshelf or lap-sit storytime.
Wonderful, indeed . (Picture book. 1-4)Pub Date: Aug. 25, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-385-37671-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: June 5, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2015
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