Winning views of a family pulling together, of young people stumbling into adolescence, and of an entertaining if...
Winning a competitive eating contest is David’s only hope of avoiding being grounded for life after he does something stupid with his mother’s credit card.
Already an avid eater and a fan of the “sport,” David Miller, 14, figures that he’s really going to have to up his game after accidently spending $2,000 in an online auction for what is billed as the very hot-dog half that cost pro eater Jooky Garafalo last year’s Nathan’s Famous contest. Fortunately, local pizzeria Pigorino’s is sponsoring a competition at the Iowa State Fair with a $5,000 first prize. Unfortunately, David will have to beat out not only a roster of gifted amateurs to make and win the finals, but also a pair of professionals—notably the renowned but unscrupulous El Gurgitator. As much gourmet as gourmand, David not only vividly chronicles awe-inspiring gustatory feats as he gears up and passes through qualifiers, but describes food with unseemly intensity: “Disks of pepperoni shimmer and glisten on a sea of molten mozzarella.” Even better, though, is the easy, natural way he interacts with Mal, a younger brother whose neurological disability (the term “autistic” is banned from family discourse) transforms but does not conceal a rich internal life. Other subplots, such as a developing relationship between David’s longtime friends Hayden (who is evidently white) and Korean-American Cyn, further enrich a tale in which his own tests and his loving, white family’s determined quest to discover what they dub “Mal’s Rules” both result in thrilling, hard-won triumphs.
Winning views of a family pulling together, of young people stumbling into adolescence, and of an entertaining if controversial pursuit, “reverse-eating events” and all. (Fiction. 12-14)Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-7636-9070-0
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Aug. 20, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2017
A quirky, sweet adventure for middle school boys.
Feeling abandoned by his two closest companions, 13-year-old Tyson just wants things to go back to normal—even if that means field dressing his own elk and fighting off a man-eating grizzly bear.
When Tyson’s best friend, Bright, decides he would rather hang out with the cool kids, Tyson reasons that he still has his grandfather for companionship. But when his grandfather Gene moves into a nursing home and Tyson’s parents cancel their big hunting trip, it is almost more than Tyson can handle. With social pressures to fit in mounting and grades rapidly sinking, things are becoming desperate. Suddenly, the hunting trip is as much about saving himself as it is about taking down a six-point bull elk. Tyson is quirky, awkward and lovable; a perfect middle school boy. He is also, at times, laugh-out-loud funny, but his best qualities are his fierce love for his family and his unwavering desire to be true to himself. It is this inner strength that carries the story through some eyebrow-raising moments. While honesty is emphasized, the lies surrounding the secret hunting trip are brushed aside as necessary for the greater good. Occasionally salty vocabulary and adolescent innuendo are developmentally spot-on.
A quirky, sweet adventure for middle school boys. (Fiction. 12-14)Pub Date: April 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-7636-6521-0
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Feb. 4, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
Only a girl with the depth of a bowl of soup could blow off everyone who loves her while complaining that no one gets her.
Cancer is so inconvenient.
It would be challenging to find a more self-obsessed 12-year-old than Josephine, whose dithering over an upcoming birthday party takes precedence over everything in her life—including her mother’s upcoming mastectomy. Josephine’s twin, Chance, decides to support his mother by dyeing his hair pink, setting off a new wave of panic for Josephine, who doesn’t want anyone, even her best friend, Makayla, to know about her mom. The flailing continues as Josephine debates going to spirit night, where Autumn will ask boys to her birthday party (OMG), and rejects a support group for kids whose parents have cancer (no way!). Josephine’s fear of attention is equally linked, by her, to unwanted scrutiny after her parents’ divorce and an unhappy sixth-grade romance (the shame of it all!). A crush on Chance’s friend Diego is just too much for a girl with the resilience of a fruit fly. To helm her tepid plot, Pyros has created a solipsistic main character who fails completely to capture readers’ empathy. Set in New York’s Westchester County, the story will leave them more annoyed with Josephine than they are with either cancer or divorce. Makayla is black, and Diego is Latinx; other characters, including Josephine and her family, are default white.
Only a girl with the depth of a bowl of soup could blow off everyone who loves her while complaining that no one gets her. (Fiction. 12-14)Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-68446-028-1
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Capstone Editions
Review Posted Online: Nov. 25, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
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