An insightful cautionary tale.
A high school senior struggles to survive serious physical and emotional abuse.
Willow wants only to finish her senior year in high school, where she takes all AP classes and shines on the chess team, so that she can escape her Midwestern town and get away from her abusive boyfriend. She knows she can’t leave Jaden, because the football star knows her family secret, a fact so horrible she can’t allow it to be spoken. Her stepfather, Ralph, compounds her misery by insisting that she continue her relationship with Jaden and beating her whenever she tries to break away. Enter Brody, the new boy in school. Brody not only achieves drop-dead male-model hotness, he turns out to be intelligent and sensitive too. Willow falls for him hard. When she and Brody finally start dating, the violence from both Jaden and Ralph increases, sending Willow to the hospital. All the while Willow behaves as do most abuse victims: She lies to protect her abusers. Pickett balances the seemingly perfect romance story with Willow’s efforts to avoid and survive the abuse. Brody’s character, as everyone’s ideal, perfect boyfriend, may come across as just plain impossible, and Jaden behaves with such constant nastiness that readers may wonder why he suffers no consequences for his actions. Those two extremes aside, however, the book portrays Willow’s plight realistically.
An insightful cautionary tale. (Fiction. 12-18)Pub Date: Feb. 10, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-63422-020-0
Page Count: 303
Publisher: Clean Teen
Review Posted Online: Nov. 3, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
An ode to the children of migrants who have been taken away.
A Mexican American boy takes on heavy responsibilities when his family is torn apart.
Mateo’s life is turned upside down the day U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents show up unsuccessfully seeking his Pa at his New York City bodega. The Garcias live in fear until the day both parents are picked up; his Pa is taken to jail and his Ma to a detention center. The adults around Mateo offer support to him and his 7-year-old sister, Sophie, however, he knows he is now responsible for caring for her and the bodega as well as trying to survive junior year—that is, if he wants to fulfill his dream to enter the drama program at the Tisch School of the Arts and become an actor. Mateo’s relationships with his friends Kimmie and Adam (a potential love interest) also suffer repercussions as he keeps his situation a secret. Kimmie is half Korean (her other half is unspecified) and Adam is Italian American; Mateo feels disconnected from them, less American, and with worries they can’t understand. He talks himself out of choosing a safer course of action, a decision that deepens the story. Mateo’s self-awareness and inner monologue at times make him seem older than 16, and, with significant turmoil in the main plot, some side elements feel underdeveloped. Aleman’s narrative joins the ranks of heart-wrenching stories of migrant families who have been separated.
An ode to the children of migrants who have been taken away. (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: May 4, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-7595-5605-8
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 22, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
There’s not much plot here, but readers will relish the opportunity to climb inside Autumn’s head.
The finely drawn characters capture readers’ attention in this debut.
Autumn and Phineas, nicknamed Finny, were born a week apart; their mothers are still best friends. Growing up, Autumn and Finny were like peas in a pod despite their differences: Autumn is “quirky and odd,” while Finny is “sweet and shy and everyone like[s] him.” But in eighth grade, Autumn and Finny stop being friends due to an unexpected kiss. They drift apart and find new friends, but their friendship keeps asserting itself at parties, shared holiday gatherings and random encounters. In the summer after graduation, Autumn and Finny reconnect and are finally ready to be more than friends. But on August 8, everything changes, and Autumn has to rely on all her strength to move on. Autumn’s coming-of-age is sensitively chronicled, with a wide range of experiences and events shaping her character. Even secondary characters are well-rounded, with their own histories and motivations.
There’s not much plot here, but readers will relish the opportunity to climb inside Autumn’s head. (Fiction. 14 & up)Pub Date: April 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4022-7782-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
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