In this stand-alone companion to The Grimm Legacy (2010), the most extraordinary library in the world makes physical impossibilities possible.
Sitting glumly at home, Leo notices an object materializing on the floor. The glittering, football-sized machine has “gears and rods and knobs and a little saddle”—and two miniscule humans, one of whom is himself. “I’m you, only later,” explains tiny-Leo, exhorting regular-Leo to read H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine. Thank goodness for Leo’s new job as a page at the New-York Circulating Material Repository, a lending library of historical and obscure objects. There he meets Jaya—recognizable from the tiny machine. When an unstable fellow page claims to possess Nikola Tesla’s death ray, Leo and Jaya snap into action using one of the Repository’s Special Collections, the Wells Bequest. The Bequest’s science-fiction objects (how can they exist? That question is called, delightfully, “literary-material philosophy”) let Leo and Jaya dash back in time to Tesla’s 1895 laboratory fire and cross the Atlantic in the Épouvante from Jules Verne’s Master of the World. Hilarious time-travel dialogue keeps the mood light: “Well, she didn’t, or you wouldn’t have to ask her to now,” Leo explains. “So that means she won’t, so she can’t.” In this exhilarating Repository, even the library cataloguing system is juicy.
Pub Date: June 13, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-399-25646-2
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Nancy Paulsen Books
Review Posted Online: April 23, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2013
An ode to the children of migrants who have been taken away.
A Mexican American boy takes on heavy responsibilities when his family is torn apart.
Mateo’s life is turned upside down the day U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents show up unsuccessfully seeking his Pa at his New York City bodega. The Garcias live in fear until the day both parents are picked up; his Pa is taken to jail and his Ma to a detention center. The adults around Mateo offer support to him and his 7-year-old sister, Sophie, however, he knows he is now responsible for caring for her and the bodega as well as trying to survive junior year—that is, if he wants to fulfill his dream to enter the drama program at the Tisch School of the Arts and become an actor. Mateo’s relationships with his friends Kimmie and Adam (a potential love interest) also suffer repercussions as he keeps his situation a secret. Kimmie is half Korean (her other half is unspecified) and Adam is Italian American; Mateo feels disconnected from them, less American, and with worries they can’t understand. He talks himself out of choosing a safer course of action, a decision that deepens the story. Mateo’s self-awareness and inner monologue at times make him seem older than 16, and, with significant turmoil in the main plot, some side elements feel underdeveloped. Aleman’s narrative joins the ranks of heart-wrenching stories of migrant families who have been separated.
An ode to the children of migrants who have been taken away. (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: May 4, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-7595-5605-8
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 22, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A book that seamlessly brings readers along on a journey of impact and empowerment.
A manifesto for budding feminists.
At the core of this engaging novel are besties Chelsea, who is Irish- and Italian-American and into fashion and beauty, and Jasmine, who is African-American, loves the theater, and pushes back against bias around size (“I don’t need your fake compliments, your pity. I know I’m beautiful. Inside and out”). They and their sidekicks, half-Japanese/half-Lebanese Nadine and Puerto Rican Isaac, grow into first-class activists—simultaneously educating their peers and readers. The year gets off to a rocky start at their progressive, social justice–oriented New York City high school: Along with the usual angst many students experience, Jasmine’s father is terminally ill with cancer, and after things go badly in both their clubs, Jasmine and Chelsea form a women’s rights club which becomes the catalyst for their growth as they explore gender inequality and opportunities for change. This is an inspiring look at two strong-willed teens growing into even stronger young women ready to use their voices and take on the world, imploring budding feminists everywhere to “join the revolution.” The book offers a poetic balance of dialogue among the main characters, their peers, and the adults in their lives. The exquisite pacing, which intersperses everyday teen conflicts with weightier issues, demonstrates how teens long to be heard and taken seriously.
A book that seamlessly brings readers along on a journey of impact and empowerment. (resources for young activists, endnotes) (Fiction. 12-18)Pub Date: Feb. 12, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5476-0008-3
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2019
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