An authentic, relatable teen protagonist, an all-too-real issue, and illustrations that resonate.
A teenage boy must overcome fear and self-doubt to stop being bullied in Langan’s YA novel, one in a series.
The Bluford High series delves into the interconnected stories of teenagers at a California high school who are dealing with difficult, sometimes-dangerous situations in their lives. (Popular with teen readers since 2001, the series, written by various authors, now consists of 24 novels.) This outstanding installment is an illustrated version of one of the first books in the series, featuring illustrator Purnell’s notably expressive pencil sketches. The narrative centers around Darrell, a 15-year-old Philadelphia transplant new to Bluford High. Looking young for his age, and having been bullied in the past, Darrell dreads going to a new school where he’ll have no friends. His mother’s advice is well meaning but clueless: “Just put a big, friendly smile on your face your first day there, honey, and by the end of the day you’ll have at least one nice friend.” His first day instead proves to be a disaster when he attracts the unwelcome attention of a bully. Darrell hides what’s happening to him, wanting to protect his hardworking single mother from worry. The situation soon becomes a nightmare as Darrell is forced to hand over his lunch money daily and take whatever cruelty the bully and his cronies dish out. The descriptions of the mockery and physical intimidation Darrell endures, and his shaking humiliation, are gut-wrenching. (When the bully calls him small, dumb, and poor, “the words were like sharp knives. Darrell knew they were true.”) Darrell’s discovery of his strengths doesn’t happen overnight; his growing self-awareness only comes after suffering dread about the new school and making awkward missteps that single him out as a target. His decision to stop appeasing the bully is a realistic evolution sparked by a sympathetic teacher, a book, an unexpected sport, and a new openness to friendships. The author underscores Darrell’s growth through his responses to a macho uncle whose two sons—one a bully-in-the-making, the other the sensitive target—mirror his own plight.
An authentic, relatable teen protagonist, an all-too-real issue, and illustrations that resonate.Pub Date: March 13, 2025
ISBN: 9781591947974
Page Count: 162
Publisher: Townsend Press
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A taut yet winding mystery that will keep readers guessing.
In this thriller, a flyer on the cheer team at her small-town Texas high school is dragged back into the awful events that claimed her best friend and her boyfriend.
Senior Iris Henley was horrified when her boyfriend, Rocky Koenig, and her former best friend, Lynette Zeiger, were found dead in a presumed murder-suicide the previous school year. She and Lynette, whose drug use was spiraling out of control, had already fallen out, but Iris had no idea Rocky was cheating on her with Lynette. But when anonymous social media posts claim that Iris herself is responsible for their deaths, her life becomes a nightmare of accusations and betrayal. Employing first-person, present-tense narration that feels immediate and anxious, this mystery builds steadily over the course of 25 days during which Iris feels increasingly desperate and unsure whom she can trust. Her troubled relationships with her friends and family are multidimensional and render her a sympathetic and likable narrator, who worries about her own reliability as she was drunk and high the night of the deaths. In particular, a subplot involving Iris’ growing understanding of her younger sister, Noelle, lends emotional depth to this whodunit. The central cast is white, and surnames suggest that some members of the supporting cast are Latine, including Iris’ best friend.
A taut yet winding mystery that will keep readers guessing. (Thriller. 14-18)Pub Date: Feb. 24, 2026
ISBN: 9781250323835
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2025
A high-concept premise that falls short in its execution.
A teenage girl finds herself alone after everyone else in her town mysteriously disappears, leaving her scrambling to figure out how to find them all.
One late summer day, everybody in July Fielding’s town disappears. She is left to piece together what happened, following a series of cryptic signs she finds around town urging her to “GET THEM BACK.” The narrative moves back and forth between July’s present and the events of the summer before, when her relationship with her best friend, cross-country team co-captain Sydney, starts to fracture due to a combination of jealousy over July’s new relationship with a cute boy called Sam and sweet up-and-coming freshman Ella’s threatening to overtake Syd’s status as star of the track team. The team members participate in a ritual in which they jump off a cliff into the rocky waters below at the end of their Friday practice runs. Though Ella is reluctant, Syd pressures her to jump. Short, frenetically paced sections move the story along quickly, and there is much foreshadowing pointing to something terrible that occurred at the end of that summer, which may be the key to July’s current predicament, but there is much misdirection too. Ultimately this is a story without enough setup to make the turn the book takes in the end feel fully developed or earned. All characters read white.
A high-concept premise that falls short in its execution. (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: Sept. 19, 2023
ISBN: 9780593327173
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2023
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