A page-turner that is funny, magical, and entertaining
Changes are hitting Gwendolyn Golden from all around: she is starting grade nine at the same time she is receiving her Night Flyers Handbook, and then there’s the Mystery Person….
The fact that Gwendolyn is a human who can fly is no longer a novelty, as it was in series opener The Strange Gift of Gwendolyn Golden (2014); now it is just a talent she must hone, a talent that she has inherited from her mysteriously deceased father, who was also a Night Flyer. As her mother and younger twin siblings, Christine and Christopher (or C2, as she affectionately calls them), try to get back to a normal life, feisty Gwendolyn nervously begins high school. She meets the new kid in town, handsome, blue-eyed Everton Miles, who is the first Night Flyer she has met close to her own age. Everton soon becomes not only her friend, but also a protector, as the two discover an evil, dark-winged Night Flyer who appears unpredictably and seems to have a special interest in Gwendolyn. Dowding offers a charming sequel that meshes the magical world of Night Flyers with ordinary teenage life effortlessly. Gwendolyn's best friend, the ever perfect Jez, her old friend Martin, who gave her the Worst Kiss Ever last spring, and popular Everton all band together in what becomes a frightening tale that plays out in the shadows of their close-knit, largely white, small town of Bass Creek.
A page-turner that is funny, magical, and entertaining . (Fantasy. 12-16)Pub Date: Nov. 8, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4597-3527-9
Page Count: 232
Publisher: Dundurn
Review Posted Online: July 25, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An emotional story that beautifully encompasses many sensitive topics.
Two best friends must navigate changing relationships during their first year of high school.
Jack and Immie have been inseparable since they were 7. But as ninth grade begins, Jack becomes more focused on soccer, and Immie finds herself looking for answers about her biological father. She’s always believed he was just a sperm donor, but when her mom shares personalized CDs he made but won’t say more—“he deserves his privacy. This was the arrangement we agreed upon”—Immie realizes that isn’t entirely true. When Jack isn’t as supportive of her quest for answers as Immie has hoped, she feels the distance between them grow. At the same time, Elijah, a sophomore soccer player, steps into her life, and she’s left to navigate her growing feelings for both boys. While the supporting characters’ storylines feel more like vehicles for exploring the love triangle and various heavy social topics, the complex leads are well developed, particularly Jack, whose anxiety and panic attacks highlight the importance of mental health support for boys. Both Immie’s and Jack’s stories are fully explored: Part One is told through Immie’s first-person voice, Part Two through Jack’s, and Part Three follows both of them in the third person. Meiser examines real topics that affect many teens and tweens in a mindful and respectful way. Main characters are cued white.
An emotional story that beautifully encompasses many sensitive topics. (Fiction. 12-16)Pub Date: Nov. 12, 2024
ISBN: 9781665948227
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
Those preparing to “slay the sucktastic beast known as high school” will particularly appreciate this spirited read.
In the sequel to Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus (2017), Aven Green confronts her biggest challenge yet: surviving high school without arms.
Fourteen-year-old Aven has just settled into life at Stagecoach Pass with her adoptive parents when everything changes again. She’s entering high school, which means that 2,300 new kids will stare at her missing arms—and her feet, which do almost everything hands can (except, alas, air quotes). Aven resolves to be “blasé” and field her classmates’ pranks with aplomb, but a humiliating betrayal shakes her self-confidence. Even her friendships feel unsteady. Her friend Connor’s moved away and made a new friend who, like him, has Tourette’s syndrome: a girl. And is Lando, her friend Zion’s popular older brother, being sweet to Aven out of pity—or something more? Bowling keenly depicts the universal awkwardness of adolescence and the particular self-consciousness of navigating a disability. Aven’s “armless-girl problems” realistically grow thornier in this outing, touching on such tough topics as death and aging, but warm, quirky secondary characters lend support. A few preachy epiphanies notwithstanding, Aven’s honest, witty voice shines—whether out-of-reach vending-machine snacks are “taunting” her or she’s nursing heartaches. A subplot exploring Aven’s curiosity about her biological father resolves with a touching twist. Most characters, including Aven, appear white; Zion and Lando are black.
Those preparing to “slay the sucktastic beast known as high school” will particularly appreciate this spirited read. (Fiction. 12-14)Pub Date: Sept. 17, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4549-3329-8
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Sterling
Review Posted Online: June 9, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2019
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