Heart-wrenching, thought-provoking, and painfully timely.
It’s April 1915 and war has come—not with a bang but with a whimper, and nothing will ever be as it was.
This slowly unfurling epic dramatizes the defense of the city of Van—a bitter victory in the first month of the Armenian genocide—through the eyes of 14-year-old Suren Simonian, an ordinary teenager straining against the last vestiges of childhood and forced to grow up too quickly. Rumors of horrific abuses against Armenians soon become a bloody reality. As much at war with himself as with the Turks who seek to exterminate his people, Suren is in turn bolstered and chained by family, faith, and friends. He’s determined to do his part to protect his home. A self-described odar, or foreigner, McQueen approaches this story with extraordinary sensitivity and lyricism. He adeptly maintains tension throughout; lighter or more introspective moments feel like pauses for breath, balancing out the bloodshed. The story’s true strength lies in its heartfelt narration: Suren’s anxious thoughts, his musings on the nature of friendship, evil, and religion, and his endless questions express the fear, frustration, anger, hope, and confused grief of a young person whose world has lost all rhyme or reason. The characters reveal their depths through their actions, words, and feelings, and readers will feel for them as though they were their own neighbors, in peril of their lives.
Heart-wrenching, thought-provoking, and painfully timely. (author’s note, pronunciation guide, further reading, discussion questions) (Historical fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: May 5, 2026
ISBN: 9781947976719
Page Count: 356
Publisher: Cennan/Cynren Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 16, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2026
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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