by Peni R. Griffin ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 1995
Suspense over a sibling in danger, and no kind words for estranged fathers. Griffin (The Brick House Burglars, 1994, etc.) creates a story of contrasts. Vikki, 16, is the good girl in her family, doing the housework and minding her half-sister Nikki, 9, while their mother works. Nikki is often naughty, and lies to cover her tracks. Both girls have not seen their fathers since babyhood; when Vikki's father reappears, ready to make amends, Nikki is jealous. She hides in the car when Vikki's father takes his daughter out, and ends up at an abandoned house in the middle of nowhere. Terrible screams come from inside before the father returns without Vikki to the car and drives away, swearing. Nikki escapes from the car and makes her way home to tell what she knows. No one believes her. The narrative alternates between Vikki's and Nikki's points of view: Vikki, who has been beaten and nearly molested by her father, struggles to get home, while Nikki tries to get someone to listen to her. Her character is particularly well-drawn; her childish attempts to get away with whatever she can in response to a self- centered mother are painfully believable. Vikki's responses feel authentic as well. Their mother's emotional distance is harder to swallow, but on the whole, this tightly written novel moves along well, building dramatic tension until the girls are reunited. (Fiction. 12+)
Pub Date: May 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-689-80028-2
Page Count: 123
Publisher: McElderry
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1995
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by Elizabeth Acevedo ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 5, 2020
A standing ovation.
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Tackles family secrets, toxic masculinity, and socio-economic differences with incisive clarity and candor.
Camino Rios lives in the Dominican Republic and yearns to go to Columbia University in New York City, where her father works most of the year. Yahaira Rios, who lives in Morningside Heights, hasn’t spoken to her dad since the previous summer, when she found out he has another wife in the Dominican Republic. Their lives collide when this man, their dad, dies in an airplane crash with hundreds of other passengers heading to the island. Each protagonist grieves the tragic death of their larger-than-life father and tries to unravel the tangled web of lies he kept secret for almost 20 years. The author pays reverent tribute to the lives lost in a similar crash in 2001. The half sisters are vastly different—Yahaira is dark skinned, a chess champion who has a girlfriend; Camino is lighter skinned, a talented swimmer who helps her curandera aunt deliver neighborhood babies. Despite their differences, they slowly forge a tenuous bond. The book is told in alternating chapters with headings counting how many days have passed since the fateful event. Acevedo balances the two perspectives with ease, contrasting the girls’ environments and upbringings. Camino’s verses read like poetic prose, flowing and straightforward. Yahaira’s sections have more breaks and urgent, staccato beats. Every line is laced with betrayal and longing as the teens struggle with loving someone despite his imperfections.
A standing ovation. (Verse novel. 14-18)Pub Date: May 5, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-06-288276-9
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2020
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by Elizabeth Acevedo ; illustrated by Andrea Pippins
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by Mahogany L. Browne & Elizabeth Acevedo & Olivia Gatwood ; illustrated by Theodore Taylor III
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by Kathleen Glasgow ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 30, 2016
This grittily provocative debut explores the horrors of self-harm and the healing power of artistic expression.
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After surviving a suicide attempt, a fragile teen isn't sure she can endure without cutting herself.
Seventeen-year-old Charlie Davis, a white girl living on the margins, thinks she has little reason to live: her father drowned himself; her bereft and abusive mother kicked her out; her best friend, Ellis, is nearly brain dead after cutting too deeply; and she's gone through unspeakable experiences living on the street. After spending time in treatment with other young women like her—who cut, burn, poke, and otherwise hurt themselves—Charlie is released and takes a bus from the Twin Cities to Tucson to be closer to Mikey, a boy she "like-likes" but who had pined for Ellis instead. But things don't go as planned in the Arizona desert, because sweet Mikey just wants to be friends. Feeling rejected, Charlie, an artist, is drawn into a destructive new relationship with her sexy older co-worker, a "semifamous" local musician who's obviously a junkie alcoholic. Through intense, diarylike chapters chronicling Charlie's journey, the author captures the brutal and heartbreaking way "girls who write their pain on their bodies" scar and mar themselves, either succumbing or surviving. Like most issue books, this is not an easy read, but it's poignant and transcendent as Charlie breaks more and more before piecing herself back together.
This grittily provocative debut explores the horrors of self-harm and the healing power of artistic expression. (author’s note) (Fiction. 14 & up)Pub Date: Aug. 30, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-101-93471-5
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2016
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