A smart, endearing story about two girls who are blending families, growing up, and building a friendship.
Two girls named Naomi build an unlikely friendship after their parents begin dating each other.
Ten-year-olds Naomi Marie and Naomi Edith don’t seem to have much in common besides their names. Naomi Marie is black, active in extracurriculars, and a big sister to 4-year-old Brianna. Naomi Edith is white, more of a homebody, and an only child. Naomi Marie’s divorced parents live near each other. Naomi Edith is also co-parented, but she lives with her dad while her mom works temporarily across the country in California. When Naomi Edith’s dad and Naomi Marie’s mom take their dating relationship to the next level and introduce their daughters, both Naomis are overwhelmed. They chafe at their parents’ signing them up for a weekly video game–coding class for girls. Forced to spend time together—and to work together to design a game—the Naomis must face their differences and the changes happening in their families. The Naomis narrate their shared story in alternating chapters written by the book’s co-authors. The girls are funny and introspective, and their middle-class lives are rich with culture, creativity, and simple pleasures—day trips to the beach, bakery treats, imaginative games. Rhuday-Perkovich and Vernick offer young readers and their parents realistic, thoughtful insights into the emotional terrain of post-divorce family life and co-parenting.
A smart, endearing story about two girls who are blending families, growing up, and building a friendship. (Fiction. 8-13)Pub Date: Sept. 13, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-06-241425-0
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 1, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2016
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic.
Chainani works an elaborate sea change akin to Gregory Maguire’s Wicked (1995), though he leaves the waters muddied.
Every four years, two children, one regarded as particularly nice and the other particularly nasty, are snatched from the village of Gavaldon by the shadowy School Master to attend the divided titular school. Those who survive to graduate become major or minor characters in fairy tales. When it happens to sweet, Disney princess–like Sophie and her friend Agatha, plain of features, sour of disposition and low of self-esteem, they are both horrified to discover that they’ve been dropped not where they expect but at Evil and at Good respectively. Gradually—too gradually, as the author strings out hundreds of pages of Hogwarts-style pranks, classroom mishaps and competitions both academic and romantic—it becomes clear that the placement wasn’t a mistake at all. Growing into their true natures amid revelations and marked physical changes, the two spark escalating rivalry between the wings of the school. This leads up to a vicious climactic fight that sees Good and Evil repeatedly switching sides. At this point, readers are likely to feel suddenly left behind, as, thanks to summary deus ex machina resolutions, everything turns out swell(ish).
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic. (Fantasy. 11-13)Pub Date: May 14, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-06-210489-2
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
This delightful debut welcomes readers in like a house filled with love.
A 13-year-old biracial girl longs to build the house of her dreams.
For Lou Bulosan-Nelson, normal is her “gigantic extended family squished into Lola’s for every holiday imaginable.” She shares a bedroom with her Filipina mother, Minda—a former interior-design major and current nurse-to-be—in Lola Celina’s San Francisco home. From her deceased white father, Michael, Lou inherited “not-so-Filipino features,” his love for architecture, and some land. Lou’s quietude implies her keen eye for details, but her passion for creating with her hands resonates loudly. Pining for something to claim as her own, she plans to construct a house from the ground up. When her mom considers moving out of state for a potential job and Lou’s land is at risk of being auctioned off, Lou stays resilient, gathering support from both friends and family to make her dream a reality. Respicio authentically depicts the richness of Philippine culture, incorporating Filipino language, insights into Lou’s family history, and well-crafted descriptions of customs, such as the birdlike Tinikling dance and eating kamayan style (with one’s hands), throughout. Lou’s story gives voice to Filipino youth, addressing cultural differences, the importance of bayanihan (community), and the true meaning of home.
This delightful debut welcomes readers in like a house filled with love. (Fiction. 8-13)Pub Date: June 12, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5247-1794-0
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Wendy Lamb/Random
Review Posted Online: March 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2018
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