Skip this stale beach read.
Juillet, a Midwest preteen grieving her parents’ breakup, finds a soulmate and discovers surfing in Southern California.
With her mother working at a nearby hospital during their monthlong stay in Santa Monica, Juillet, 12, expects to miss her (one) friend, Fern, back home. Together, they read cult horror fiction and hung out at the mall in goth makeup and attire. In Santa Monica, she meets Summer, a beautiful, blonde surfer girl who’s intrigued by Juillet’s look and delighted to learn Juillet means “July” in French. Friendship quickly follows. Outgoing Summer introduces Juillet to the neighborhood, its denizens, and So-Cal surf culture. Juillet’s smitten with everything, especially Summer herself, who coaxes Juillet out of her comfort zone and onto a boogie board, a skateboard, and, eventually, a surfboard. Though mostly sunny and upbeat, Summer keeps secrets. Why won’t she won’t talk about her family or where she disappears to? The ocean and how Juillet learns to engage with it are the novel’s strengths, vivid and convincing, but not the far-fetched plotting or carelessly written major characters (who are white). While surfing culture is central to both plot and theme, the customs and argot Summer teaches Juillet are dated, feeling as though they’ve been sourced from inauthentic, pop-culture iterations like the 1959 film Gidget. Even as the book ignores Hawaiian surfing history and culture, the surfing meme “Eddie would go,” celebrating legendary surfer Eddie Aikau, appears in an adapted form without attribution or context.
Skip this stale beach read. (Fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: June 9, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-06-284936-6
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: March 14, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
On equal footing with a garden-variety potato.
The new kid in school endures becoming the school mascot.
Ben Hardy has never cared for potatoes, and this distaste has become a barrier to adjusting to life in his new Idaho town. His school’s mascot is the Spud, and after a series of misfortunes, Ben is enlisted to don the potato costume and cheer on his school’s team. Ben balances his duties as a life-sized potato against his desperate desire to hide the fact that he’s the dork in the suit. After all, his cute new crush, Jayla, wouldn’t be too impressed to discover Ben’s secret. The ensuing novel is a fairly boilerplate middle–grade narrative: snarky tween protagonist, the crush that isn’t quite what she seems, and a pair of best friends that have more going on than our hero initially believes. The author keeps the novel moving quickly, pushing forward with witty asides and narrative momentum so fast that readers won’t really mind that the plot’s spine is one they’ve encountered many times before. Once finished, readers will feel little resonance and move on to the next book in their to-read piles, but in the moment the novel is pleasant enough. Ben, Jayla, and Ben’s friend Hunter are white while Ellie, Ben’s other good pal, is Latina.
On equal footing with a garden-variety potato. (Fiction. 10-12)Pub Date: March 24, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-11866-5
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Nov. 23, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
Energizing and compassionate.
An aspiring transgender Junior Olympian swimmer finds the strength and pride in his identity to race toward his dreams in this debut coming-of-age novel by groundbreaking trans athlete Bailar.
Starting over after his abusive and discriminatory swim coach excluded him from the team, Obie Chang, a biracial (White/Korean) transgender boy worries about catching up to the other boys and proving that he is “man enough.” Although his family supports him, one of his best friends at school and the pool has turned into his biggest bully, and the other is drifting away toward the mean, popular girls. As he dives from the blocks into the challenging waters of seventh grade and swims toward his goal of qualifying for the Junior Olympics, Obie discovers belonging in his community and in himself. Affirming adults—including his parents and grandparents, a new swim coach, and his favorite teacher—play significant supporting roles by offering encouragement without pressure, centering Obie’s feelings, and validating Obie’s right to set his own boundaries. Vulnerable first-person narration explores Obie’s internal conflict about standing up for himself and his desire to connect to his Korean heritage through his relationship with Halmoni, his paternal grandmother. A romance with Charlie, a cisgender biracial (Cuban/White) girl, is gentle and privacy-affirming. Short chapters and the steady pace of external tension balance moments of rumination, grounding them in the ongoing action of Obie’s experiences.
Energizing and compassionate. (author's note, resources, glossary) (Fiction. 10-13)Pub Date: Sept. 7, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-37946-2
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: July 7, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2021
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