A hard-hitting and ultimately insightful tale of adolescent woe.
Samuels’ middle-grade novel centers on a young teenager’s thorny relationship with a bully.
Thirteen-year-old Charlie has known his schoolmate Mark since they were both 9, and they’ve always been casual acquaintances. Then one day, for no clear reason, Mark starts bullying Charlie relentlessly and even convinces other students to harass and ridicule Charlie every Friday (or “Charlie Day,” as Mark calls it). Charlie initially sees summer vacation as a welcome relief from the abuse—but then Mark shows up at Charlie’s apartment and says that he wants to be friends. Charlie is initially wary but decides to give it a try. The problem is that Mark frequently berates Charlie, insisting that he’s immature—or “acting like a baby,” as he puts it. He also makes bizarre demands, such as suddenly insisting that Charlie immediately take a shower. Charlie, who has no friends, oscillates between frustration with the situation and thinking that he might have somehow brought Mark’s horrible treatment on himself. “Why was he doing this?” Charlie wonders at one point, but it takes some time for him to finally get an answer. Samuels’ story is often dire; Charlie, who narrates, hopes on a daily basis that Mark’s “bad attitude” won’t resurface, and some of what Mark does is quite disturbing and will likely make many readers uncomfortable, as will the fact that Charlie continually agrees to spend time with an unpredictable bully who humiliates him, privately and publicly, at random intervals. Overall, though, it’s an effectively understated novella that allows for multiple interpretations, and readers get a better understanding of each of the main characters by the end. The author’s prose also effectively reads like the thoughts of a bright 13-year-old: “He was being stubborn for no reason at all. I guessed he was trying to see if he could get me to panic, so I kept taking deep breaths and concentrated on waiting him out.”
A hard-hitting and ultimately insightful tale of adolescent woe.Pub Date: May 2, 2024
ISBN: 9798987329290
Page Count: 127
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: June 30, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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A successful call for creating and imagining, even if the story itself falls short.
In the dystopian, totalitarian world of 2099, 14-year-old Tessa and her family are desperate to solve the mystery of her twin brother Theo’s disappearance.
Tessa is growing up in a time when playgrounds are historical relics, surveillance cameras are everywhere, music is outlawed, and owning books is illegal. Under the absolute rule of Zokiris, the decadeslong leader of her territory, people are heavily controlled. When Theo vanishes under mysterious circumstances and his name is erased from the Territory Statistics list, Tessa’s 135-year-old neighbor, Miriam, gives the family contraband books that become central to figuring out Theo’s whereabouts. Most books have long since been seized and stored away in Building 903; Tessa is intrigued by their presence in her home, while her mother is terrified. Lowry, the acclaimed, award-winning author of The Giver (1993), shines in her creation of uncomfortably believable dystopian societies. Tessa’s painfully limited world is fully imagined, with its own history, laws, and norms. Her relationship with her brother reads as realistic and tender and is crucial to the mystery. Miriam is the most strongly developed character: wise and independent, unafraid and hopeful. While the climb to the book’s climax is captivating, the hurried resolution is disappointing. The powerful messaging around the importance of literature and imagination certainly resonates, however. The main characters present white.
A successful call for creating and imagining, even if the story itself falls short. (Dystopian. 9-12)Pub Date: Sept. 29, 2026
ISBN: 9780063515109
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Clarion/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 6, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2026
Charming, poignant, and thoughtfully woven.
An aspiring scientist and a budding artist become friends and help each other with dream projects.
Unfolding in mid-1980s Sacramento, California, this story stars 12-year-olds Rosalind and Benjamin as first-person narrators in alternating chapters. Ro’s father, a fellow space buff, was killed by a drunk driver; the rocket they were working on together lies unfinished in her closet. As for Benji, not only has his best friend, Amir, moved away, but the comic book holding the clue for locating his dad is also missing. Along with their profound personal losses, the protagonists share a fixation with the universe’s intriguing potential: Ro decides to complete the rocket and hopes to launch mementos of her father into outer space while Benji’s conviction that aliens and UFOs are real compels his imagination and creativity as an artist. An accident in science class triggers a chain of events forcing Benji and Ro, who is new to the school, to interact and unintentionally learn each other’s secrets. They resolve to find Benji’s dad—a famous comic-book artist—and partner to finish Ro’s rocket for the science fair. Together, they overcome technical, scheduling, and geographical challenges. Readers will be drawn in by amusing and fantastical elements in the comic book theme, high emotional stakes that arouse sympathy, and well-drawn character development as the protagonists navigate life lessons around grief, patience, self-advocacy, and standing up for others. Ro is biracial (Chinese/White); Benji is White.
Charming, poignant, and thoughtfully woven. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Jan. 12, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-06-300888-5
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2020
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