Most intellectually disabled characters in children’s fiction are siblings or pals whose treatment by other characters...
Meet Bunny (short for Bernard) O’Toole—mentally slow, physically strong and fast—the observant, nonjudgmental narrator of this convoluted but enjoyable fable of Toronto gang life recorded in believable, phonetically spelled prose.
His grandfather never got around to getting a tattoo while he was alive. He’s left a letter asking Bunny to do it for him and he does, though the tattoo’s design confuses him. The “15” makes sense—it’s his age—but why is there a candle next to it? Is the tattoo why Jaden, whom he rescued from a bully, and his gang befriend him, even though they’re black and Bunny’s white? Accustomed to teasing and harassment, Bunny finds the gang’s close bond exhilarating. Soon, he’s hanging out at Jaden’s gym, where the manager, Morgan, teaches him boxing. (Bunny’s gifts reflect a stereotype, the disability equivalent of the "magical negro" trope.) Bunny enthusiastically joins in their mysterious deal to raise money to keep the gym open. He reacts to what he experiences; his impressions aren’t funneled through a prism of fears and assumptions. (Readers won’t find the gang so benign.) Loyalty is the currency of their world—something Bunny understands.
Most intellectually disabled characters in children’s fiction are siblings or pals whose treatment by other characters signals their compassion or otherwise. Bunny’s a rare hero—not on anyone’s journey but his own. (Fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Oct. 10, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-4598-0016-8
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Orca
Review Posted Online: Aug. 7, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2012
Set in an alternative feudal-ish Japan, this is the story of five kids with severe disabilities or disfigurements who have been accepted for training in a school for samurai. The unusual Cockroach Ryu is directed by the elderly, highly respected (and amusingly crotchety) samurai Ki-Yaga. Ki-Yaga and his equally cranky horse, Uma, are distinct as characters and add much to the book—humor, tactics and the use of pudding as a tool for success. The plot starts unusually slowly, limiting tension, suspense and probably audience, since adventure fans expect lashings of the first two qualities from the start. And the five students in this book are identified primarily by their disabilities (blindness, one leg, one arm, having six fingers, fear of fighting) for the first third of the story. This disappointingly reductive technique results in unclear characterization; by the time additional and critical back story is provided, many readers will have given up. Given these flaws, it is doubtful that most kids will stay with the book long enough to become engaged with story or characters. (Adventure. 11-14)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-7636-4503-8
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: June 28, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2010
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
In a hellish country ruled by megalomaniac Keran Berj, Grace has been raised by the People, a freedom-fighting sect dedicated to the overthrow of Keran Berj, to be an Angel. Like the rest of the girls in Angel House, Grace trained for the sacred day when she would strap on a bomb in front of a political target and blow herself up. But Grace has never truly felt like a child of the People, and when the moment of truth comes, she chooses not to die—though she still sets off her bomb in the village square. Now she's on the run from her own people and from Keran Berj's. This brief, atmospheric novella follows Grace's train journey to the border of Keran Berj's country. Accompanied by the strange boy Kerr, Grace contemplates her own past, that of her homeland and the choices that led her to this moment. Moody and compelling, without the easy moralizing so common in dystopian settings. (Science fiction. 12-14)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-525-42206-8
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2010
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