A Montana teen flirts with involvement with a white-supremacist movement, and then fights to keep his brother out of it. Ben’s rage at his family’s poverty and the rich kids who lord it over him finds an easy outlet at the meetings his father takes him to, where the charismatic Lonn preaches against the Jewish bankers and developers he claims are changing the rural Montana way of life. A couple of nighttime forays into violence give Ben a feeling of power and worth unlike anything he’s ever known. Up to this point, the narrative is quite successful, but then Ben experiences a sudden change of heart brought about in part by his burgeoning romance with the free-spirited Eden and a reluctant friendship with a rich kid with whom he is doing community service. Virtually overnight, Ben realizes the danger involvement in the Guardians of the Identity represents, and he is revulsed by his prior actions and by his weak younger brother’s growing involvement. There is a difficulty inherent when writing about subjects such as these in formulating sympathetic characters who nevertheless think and do abhorrent things. Martin (The Eagle’s Shadow, 1997, etc.) nearly achieves this, but instead takes the easy path, making her protagonist an observer who rejects evil and chooses the moral high ground (building subsidized housing for the poor, no less). What could have been a truly provocative offering degenerates into another teen problem novel, albeit with a problem more inflammatory than most. Some of the feelings expressed by Ben ring with emotional honesty—“Making that car burn almost made up for every dirty look every name hissed at me from under some creep’s breath”—but others seem forced in their attempt to make Ben over into a good boy: “I went home from Eden’s realizing that she was the kind of friend and girlfriend I really wanted. But I needed to be the kind of person in truth that she thought I was.” Well-meaning but ultimately obvious. (Fiction. YA)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2002
ISBN: 1-58234-788-3
Page Count: 200
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2002
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
A compelling romance inhabited by complex and appealing characters.
When star hockey player Alec Barczewski’s estranged childhood friend, Dani Collins, moves to town, they end up in a mutually beneficial fake-dating relationship that reignites old feelings.
Following her parents’ divorce, Dani and her mom move in with Dani’s hockey legend grandfather in Southview, Minnesota, where she spent a month every summer as a child and where her friendship with Alec grew. Between visits, the two were pen pals, but they eventually fell out of touch. Despite some tensions over their loss of friendship, the high school seniors reconnect. Desperate to get off Harvard’s waitlist, Dani needs another extracurricular activity, while Alec—whose reputation took a hit when a photo of him holding a bong appeared on social media—is eager to improve his tarnished image for NHL scouts. The pair strike a deal: They’ll fake date, making Alec look like a stable guy whose academically gifted girlfriend is related to hockey royalty, and in exchange, he’ll get Dani a team manager position that will catch the eye of Harvard’s admissions officers. Eventually, complicated feelings about their past, stressful family relationships, and their brewing romance boil over. Romance fans will love the deliciously tension-filled scenes between Alec and Dani, who are believable friends with heavy demands weighing on them. They feel like real teenagers, and readers will enjoy rooting for them as the well-paced story unfolds. Main characters present white.
A compelling romance inhabited by complex and appealing characters. (Romance. 14-18)Pub Date: Sept. 30, 2025
ISBN: 9781665921268
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
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