Tugs at the heartstrings and shows the importance of unconditional love.
Victoria Reeves is back with another No-Fail Plan in this follow-up to The First Magnificent Summer (2023).
This time, Victoria is ready to move on from the disappointment of last summer, which she spent with her absent, neglectful father. Now her plan consists of just three steps: “Forget about Dad,” “Get published,” and “Spend as much time with Mom as possible.” Step one is already off to a bad start—in the past year, Dad hasn’t reached out to Victoria, her siblings, or her mom or sent any child support, even while Mom has worked two jobs to barely get by. At least the other two goals look promising. That is, until Mom’s serious boyfriend starts hanging around more, becoming The Problem Known as Kyle. Victoria hatches The No-Fail Plan To Fix Our Family (and Heal), which boils down to getting rid of Kyle for good (“I’ve read all the fairy tales. The kids are never the winners when stepparents enter the picture”). As Victoria grapples with “womenstruation,” her growing body, new feelings, and more family changes, she must decide whether she’ll let people into her life or build walls so high that no one can reach her. Victoria writes her journal entries in both verse and prose, which will appeal to a variety of readers. This sequel thoughtfully and sincerely explores themes of womanhood, family, anxiety, and identity. Characters are cued white.
Tugs at the heartstrings and shows the importance of unconditional love. (author’s note) (Fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: May 28, 2024
ISBN: 9781665925525
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: March 9, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic.
Chainani works an elaborate sea change akin to Gregory Maguire’s Wicked (1995), though he leaves the waters muddied.
Every four years, two children, one regarded as particularly nice and the other particularly nasty, are snatched from the village of Gavaldon by the shadowy School Master to attend the divided titular school. Those who survive to graduate become major or minor characters in fairy tales. When it happens to sweet, Disney princess–like Sophie and her friend Agatha, plain of features, sour of disposition and low of self-esteem, they are both horrified to discover that they’ve been dropped not where they expect but at Evil and at Good respectively. Gradually—too gradually, as the author strings out hundreds of pages of Hogwarts-style pranks, classroom mishaps and competitions both academic and romantic—it becomes clear that the placement wasn’t a mistake at all. Growing into their true natures amid revelations and marked physical changes, the two spark escalating rivalry between the wings of the school. This leads up to a vicious climactic fight that sees Good and Evil repeatedly switching sides. At this point, readers are likely to feel suddenly left behind, as, thanks to summary deus ex machina resolutions, everything turns out swell(ish).
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic. (Fantasy. 11-13)Pub Date: May 14, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-06-210489-2
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2013
BOOK TO SCREEN
An endearing protagonist runs the first, fast leg of Reynolds' promising relay.
Castle “Ghost” Cranshaw feels like he’s been running ever since his dad pulled that gun on him and his mom—and used it.
His dad’s been in jail three years now, but Ghost still feels the trauma, which is probably at the root of the many “altercations” he gets into at middle school. When he inserts himself into a practice for a local elite track team, the Defenders, he’s fast enough that the hard-as-nails coach decides to put him on the team. Ghost is surprised to find himself caring enough about being on the team that he curbs his behavior to avoid “altercations.” But Ma doesn’t have money to spare on things like fancy running shoes, so Ghost shoplifts a pair that make his feet feel impossibly light—and his conscience correspondingly heavy. Ghost’s narration is candid and colloquial, reminiscent of such original voices as Bud Caldwell and Joey Pigza; his level of self-understanding is both believably childlike and disarming in its perception. He is self-focused enough that secondary characters initially feel one-dimensional, Coach in particular, but as he gets to know them better, so do readers, in a way that unfolds naturally and pleasingly. His three fellow “newbies” on the Defenders await their turns to star in subsequent series outings. Characters are black by default; those few white people in Ghost’s world are described as such.
An endearing protagonist runs the first, fast leg of Reynolds' promising relay. (Fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Aug. 30, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4814-5015-7
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Caitlyn Dlouhy/Atheneum
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2016
PROFILES
SEEN & HEARD
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