A compelling yarn that unravels when it comes to considerate cultural representation.
In this spirited ghost story, 13-year-old Trace is haunted by more than the memories of the car accident that killed his parents.
Theodore Raymond “Trace” Carter, an African-American boy from Baltimore, is still adjusting to life in Brooklyn with his new guardian, his eccentric aunt, when he goes to the New York Public Library and finds himself face to face with the weeping ghost of a little black boy. Though he is a little intrigued, he’s more frightened, and Trace tries to block their encounters from his mind until the research for his history-class project thrusts him into a past tragedy at the NYPL to which he is unwittingly bound. In her first novel, picture-book veteran Cummings carefully weaves in subtle clues to help readers through the beautifully paced chapters, leading them to an ending that delights and comforts. Unfortunately, the road to the end is made extremely challenging by Trace’s persistent misogyny and his unnecessary speculation about the perceived sexuality of two of his aunt’s women friends; a troubling scene in which Trace is allowed to get drunk and miss school lands with no interrogation. These incidents simultaneously developmentally age the book above its recommended audience of 8- to 12-year-olds and present a barrier to deep engagement with the overall narrative arc. His classmates’ unquestioned conflations of varied ethnic and racial experiences are further dissonant.
A compelling yarn that unravels when it comes to considerate cultural representation. (Paranormal mystery. 12-14)Pub Date: April 2, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-06-269884-1
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Jan. 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2019
Chilling, difficult, and definitely not for readers without a solid understanding of the Holocaust despite the relatively...
A young boy grows up in Adolf Hitler’s mountain home in Austria.
Seven-year-old Pierrot Fischer and his frail French mother live in Paris. His German father, a bitter ex-soldier, returned to Germany and died there. Pierrot’s best friend is Anshel Bronstein, a deaf Jewish boy. After his mother dies, he lives in an orphanage, until his aunt Beatrix sends for him to join her at the Berghof mountain retreat in Austria, where she is housekeeper for Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun. It is here that he becomes ever more enthralled with Hitler and grows up, proudly wearing the uniform of the Hitler Youth, treating others with great disdain, basking in his self-importance, and then committing a terrible act of betrayal against his aunt. He witnesses vicious acts against Jews, and he hears firsthand of plans for extermination camps. Yet at war’s end he maintains that he was only a child and didn’t really understand. An epilogue has him returning to Paris, where he finds Anshel and begins a kind of catharsis. Boyne includes real Nazi leaders and historical details in his relentless depiction of Pierrot’s inevitable corruption and self-delusion. As with The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (2006), readers both need to know what Pierrot disingenuously doesn’t and are expected to accept his extreme naiveté, his total lack of awareness and comprehension in spite of what is right in front of him.
Chilling, difficult, and definitely not for readers without a solid understanding of the Holocaust despite the relatively simple reading level. (Historical fiction. 12-14)Pub Date: June 7, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-62779-030-7
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: March 29, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Disturbingly plausible, definitely thought- and discussion-provoking.
Seeing evidence that a neighbor’s children are being abused, a young teenager looks for adult help and finds none in this disquieting German import.
Summering with her grandparents in a quiet small town and largely left to her own devices, 13-year-old Mascha is shocked to see bruises and other wounds on the two children—Julia, 9, and 7-year-old Max—of the local car dealer. After later witnessing a violent scene through their window, she hastens to tell her grandma, who responds with a blanket denial: “They’re good people. Everyone here knows that. Those things don’t happen here!” Despite similar responses from other adults, she nerves herself for a 911 call but (realistically) is so nervous and inarticulate that she’s dismissed as a prankster. In desperation, she kidnaps the children with a wild story about their parents being suddenly called away, locks them in an abandoned house, and struggles to keep them quiet and fed. Unsurprisingly, this ill-conceived scheme turns nearly to disaster when searchers find the supposed runaways. Kreller delivers a powerful tale centered on three young people who are out of their depth (“When Daddy whips us, he has a reason,” insists Julia, fierce and secretive) and get no help from a community that, like most, values peace and privacy over all.
Disturbingly plausible, definitely thought- and discussion-provoking. (Fiction. 12-14)Pub Date: Oct. 13, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-399-17209-0
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2015
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