Vibrant backdrops and stellar characters animate a worthwhile SF romp.
An Earth-born Martian teen travels through space and time to save his home planet in DeLaurentis’ debut YA novel.
Fifteen-year-old Thomas Knight lives on the Mars Station, a strictly controlled interior city on the Red Planet in the late 21st century. He learns all he can about Earth, the “origin planet,” which superfloods rendered uninhabitable a couple of decades earlier. His Earth obsession could lead to trouble—Martian inhabitants are confined to the Station, and attempts at escape are dealt with harshly. One day, Thomas meets a stranger who makes the startling claim that Thomas is not like his genetically engineered peers—he was the very last child born on Earth (“With a real mother and father? How could that possibly be?”). His birth father, whom he’s never known, has worked with others to implement a plan for Thomas to salvage their devastated world. It entails time-traveling into both the past and the future, but Thomas doesn’t exactly land where he was meant to. Arriving in 2023 Marin County, California, he meets a fellow teenager, Elly McAllister, who can tell him even more about the planet that has long enchanted him. DeLaurentis depicts a visually rich SF setting including the Station’s interior of overlapping circles and the children’s diet of geometric foodstuffs (like freeze-dried triangular tomatoes). The scenes set on Earth are equally engaging as Thomas spots so many peculiar things that Elly must explain to him, from a dartboard to a roller coaster. The relatively small cast shines, including Thomas, who easily adapts to changing circumstances; the ever-helpful and easygoing Elly; and Eno, Thomas’ smaller “counterpart” (the boys room together on the Station), who’s brilliant and loyal. Wherever he goes, the young hero faces obstacles, such as Mars’ sub-zero temperatures, megalodons on Earth, and bullies that, sadly, exist on both worlds. While this book delivers a satisfying, well-rounded adventure, it’s also the first installment in a proposed trilogy—Thomas’ interplanetary, time-hopping journey is just starting.
Vibrant backdrops and stellar characters animate a worthwhile SF romp.Pub Date: April 9, 2024
ISBN: 9781644283998
Page Count: 280
Publisher: Rare Bird Books
Review Posted Online: May 2, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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 prototypical survival story: after an airplane crash, a 13-year-old city boy spends two months alone in the Canadian wilderness. In transit between his divorcing parents, Brian is the plane's only passenger. After casually showing him how to steer, the pilot has a heart attack and dies. In a breathtaking sequence, Brian maneuvers the plane for hours while he tries to think what to do, at last crashing as gently and levelly as he can manage into a lake. The plane sinks; all he has left is a hatchet, attached to his belt. His injuries prove painful but not fundamental. In time, he builds a shelter, experiments with berries, finds turtle eggs, starts a fire, makes a bow and arrow to catch fish and birds, and makes peace with the larger wildlife. He also battles despair and emerges more patient, prepared to learn from his mistakes—when a rogue moose attacks him and a fierce storm reminds him of his mortality, he's prepared to make repairs with philosophical persistence. His mixed feelings surprise him when the plane finally surfaces so that he can retrieve the survival pack; and then he's rescued. Plausible, taut, this is a spellbinding account. Paulsen's staccato, repetitive style conveys Brian's stress; his combination of third-person narrative with Brian's interior monologue pulls the reader into the story. Brian's angst over a terrible secret—he's seen his mother with another man—is undeveloped and doesn't contribute much, except as one item from his previous life that he sees in better perspective, as a result of his experience. High interest, not hard to read. A winner.
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1987
ISBN: 1416925082
Page Count: -
Publisher: Bradbury
Review Posted Online: Oct. 18, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1987
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