How can kids who are dealing with their own grief help other kids with similar problems?
When Abby’s dad makes her join him at a two-day grief retreat, she wears her soccer cleats as a form of protest. Her mother died of heart disease just two months ago, and Abby doesn’t feel like sharing the experience with anyone. But once she’s there, she finds herself opening up a bit, especially to another girl, Felicia, who lost both her parents at the same time in a snowmobiling accident. If Felicia can survive losing both parents, surely Abby can be brave about losing one? Abby’s narration alternates with Christopher’s; his father died two years ago, and he really doesn’t want to talk about it. But as the group gets closer, they discover that not all is as it seems. Can the shaky common ground they’ve worked to develop withstand an emotional earthquake? Or two? At times reading like a manual in how to express feelings of grief, this book sometimes stretches awkwardly in its attempt to blend a compelling narrative with dialogue that might prove useful to someone struggling to deal with a death. Even the plot twists feel carefully inserted for a higher therapeutic purpose. The cast is largely white, but some French-Canadian characters add diversity, as do a teen with two moms and a kid whose parents emigrated from Chile.
Useful—but purpose trumps art. (Fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Sept. 4, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4598-1568-1
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Orca
Review Posted Online: May 28, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2018
Categories: CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES
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Poignant, respectful, and historically accurate while pulsating with emotional turmoil, adventure, and suspense.
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In the midst of political turmoil, how do you escape the only country that you’ve ever known and navigate a new life? Parallel stories of three different middle school–aged refugees—Josef from Nazi Germany in 1938, Isabel from 1994 Cuba, and Mahmoud from 2015 Aleppo—eventually intertwine for maximum impact.
Three countries, three time periods, three brave protagonists. Yet these three refugee odysseys have so much in common. Each traverses a landscape ruled by a dictator and must balance freedom, family, and responsibility. Each initially leaves by boat, struggles between visibility and invisibility, copes with repeated obstacles and heart-wrenching loss, and gains resilience in the process. Each third-person narrative offers an accessible look at migration under duress, in which the behavior of familiar adults changes unpredictably, strangers exploit the vulnerabilities of transients, and circumstances seem driven by random luck. Mahmoud eventually concludes that visibility is best: “See us….Hear us. Help us.” With this book, Gratz accomplishes a feat that is nothing short of brilliant, offering a skillfully wrought narrative laced with global and intergenerational reverberations that signal hope for the future. Excellent for older middle grade and above in classrooms, book groups, and/or communities looking to increase empathy for new and existing arrivals from afar.
Poignant, respectful, and historically accurate while pulsating with emotional turmoil, adventure, and suspense. (maps, author’s note) (Historical fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: July 25, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-545-88083-1
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 10, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2017
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An endearing protagonist runs the first, fast leg of Reynolds' promising relay.
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Castle “Ghost” Cranshaw feels like he’s been running ever since his dad pulled that gun on him and his mom—and used it.
His dad’s been in jail three years now, but Ghost still feels the trauma, which is probably at the root of the many “altercations” he gets into at middle school. When he inserts himself into a practice for a local elite track team, the Defenders, he’s fast enough that the hard-as-nails coach decides to put him on the team. Ghost is surprised to find himself caring enough about being on the team that he curbs his behavior to avoid “altercations.” But Ma doesn’t have money to spare on things like fancy running shoes, so Ghost shoplifts a pair that make his feet feel impossibly light—and his conscience correspondingly heavy. Ghost’s narration is candid and colloquial, reminiscent of such original voices as Bud Caldwell and Joey Pigza; his level of self-understanding is both believably childlike and disarming in its perception. He is self-focused enough that secondary characters initially feel one-dimensional, Coach in particular, but as he gets to know them better, so do readers, in a way that unfolds naturally and pleasingly. His three fellow “newbies” on the Defenders await their turns to star in subsequent series outings. Characters are black by default; those few white people in Ghost’s world are described as such.
An endearing protagonist runs the first, fast leg of Reynolds' promising relay. (Fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Aug. 30, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4814-5015-7
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Caitlyn Dlouhy/Atheneum
Review Posted Online: July 20, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2016
Categories: CHILDREN'S ENTERTAINMENT & SPORTS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES
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