by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 15, 2013
Still, as a steady, dependable guide through the perils of adolescence, Alice is unexcelled, and her legions of fans will be...
The 28th and last novel in this essential series is addressed to fans who want to know what happens to Alice.
In almost 500 pages, Alice takes herself and her circle of childhood friends through college, marriages, child-rearing and beyond. As years fly by, traumatic events include an attempted date rape, a friend’s miscarriage and her teenage daughter being caught in a beery game of strip poker. These are buried beneath flurries of happy vacation memories, emotional high points and get-togethers with close friends at sad or (more often) joyful life occasions to laugh and reminisce. What emerges is a portrait of a settled, comfortable life centered on family and relationships, with, at best, only passing mentions of academic, intellectual or professional interests. Furthermore, Alice’s decades seem to pass in a timeless bubble—when, at age 60, she rereads a time-capsule letter to herself from seventh grade, for all the scene’s poignancy, the setting could still be 1993, when the letter’s original mention in Alice in April appeared. Alice’s aspiration to live with “passion, tenderness, and joy” is only fitfully reflected in this bland memoir, and readers with, for instance, social consciences or some curiosity about the universe may by dissatisfied by her circumscribed, agnostic viewpoint.
Still, as a steady, dependable guide through the perils of adolescence, Alice is unexcelled, and her legions of fans will be pleased to see her so well rewarded. (Fiction. 12-16, adult)Pub Date: Oct. 15, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4424-4590-1
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2013
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by Alice Oseman ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 28, 2017
A smart, timely outing.
Two teens connect through a mysterious podcast in this sophomore effort by British author Oseman (Solitaire, 2015).
Frances Janvier is a 17-year-old British-Ethiopian head girl who is so driven to get into Cambridge that she mostly forgoes friendships for schoolwork. Her only self-indulgence is listening to and creating fan art for the podcast Universe City, “a…show about a suit-wearing student detective looking for a way to escape a sci-fi, monster-infested university.” Aled Last is a quiet white boy who identifies as “partly asexual.” When Frances discovers that Aled is the secret creator of Universe City, the two embark on a passionate, platonic relationship based on their joint love of pop culture. Their bond is complicated by Aled’s controlling mother and by Frances’ previous crush on Aled’s twin sister, Carys, who ran away last year and disappeared. When Aled’s identity is accidently leaked to the Universe City fandom, he severs his relationship with Frances, leaving her questioning her Cambridge goals and determined to win back his affection, no matter what the cost. Frances’ narration is keenly intelligent; she takes mordant pleasure in using an Indian friend’s ID to get into a club despite the fact they look nothing alike: “Gotta love white people.” Though the social-media–suffused plot occasionally lags, the main characters’ realistic relationship accurately depicts current issues of gender, race, and class.
A smart, timely outing. (Fiction. 12-16)Pub Date: March 28, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-06-233571-5
Page Count: 496
Publisher: HarperTeen
Review Posted Online: Jan. 16, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2017
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by Jerry Spinelli ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 3, 2021
Characters to love, quips to snort at, insights to ponder: typical Spinelli.
For two teenagers, a small town’s annual cautionary ritual becomes both a life- and a death-changing experience.
On the second Wednesday in June, every eighth grader in Amber Springs, Pennsylvania, gets a black shirt, the name and picture of a teen killed the previous year through reckless behavior—and the silent treatment from everyone in town. Like many of his classmates, shy, self-conscious Robbie “Worm” Tarnauer has been looking forward to Dead Wed as a day for cutting loose rather than sober reflection…until he finds himself talking to a strange girl or, as she would have it, “spectral maiden,” only he can see or touch. Becca Finch is as surprised and confused as Worm, only remembering losing control of her car on an icy slope that past Christmas Eve. But being (or having been, anyway) a more outgoing sort, she sees their encounter as a sign that she’s got a mission. What follows, in a long conversational ramble through town and beyond, is a day at once ordinary yet rich in discovery and self-discovery—not just for Worm, but for Becca too, with a climactic twist that leaves both ready, or readier, for whatever may come next. Spinelli shines at setting a tongue-in-cheek tone for a tale with serious underpinnings, and as in Stargirl (2000), readers will be swept into the relationship that develops between this adolescent odd couple. Characters follow a White default.
Characters to love, quips to snort at, insights to ponder: typical Spinelli. (Fiction. 12-15)Pub Date: Aug. 3, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-30667-3
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 31, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2021
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