Fourteen-year-old Mike is about to take what might become the winning shot for his travel basketball team when he reflects...
A teen with epilepsy has fantastic basketball skills, honed by years of relentless practice, but still struggles frequently with his condition.
Fourteen-year-old Mike is about to take what might become the winning shot for his travel basketball team when he reflects back on his 12 years of living with epilepsy. His path to success has veered around roadblocks: seizures that aren’t fully controlled by his medicines, bullying at school and prejudice on the part of his coach and a few other adults. With knowledgeable parents, a good doctor and a wise counselor, he’s doing well; this aspect rings true, since one of the authors, Simmel, has had epilepsy since early childhood and is also a member of the Harlem Wizards, a performing basketball team. Stock characters and heavy-handed asides reinforce the helpful message to readers but often intrude on the storytelling unnecessarily: “His mom also reminded him that it’s normal to be embarrassed or upset if kids didn’t understand his epilepsy.” This weakness diminishes the novel’s potential to reach a broad audience. A lengthy afterward provides a wealth of accurate and useful information for patients and their families.Pub Date: Sept. 15, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-4338-1043-5
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Magination/American Psychological Association
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
A witty story about feeling good in your own skin that rings true emotionally.
A humorous coming-of-age novel with zits, separated parents, complicated friendships, and therapy dogs.
What does a volcano have in common with a pepperoni pizza? They both describe ways that 13-year-old Ellis Starr views her acne-prone skin, which she grades as being on the 99th percentile of the Acne Scale of Doom. Life gets more complicated when her zits swell together in fiery red blotches and the eighth grade capstone project looms over her head. Ellis likes to collect random scientific facts but can’t land on a subject that’s exciting enough. She feels like no one is really listening to her, including her parents (who can’t afford to divorce) and her best friend, Aggy (who has beautiful blemish-free skin). The stressors keep piling up, and the fiery red blemishes proliferate despite home remedies like toothpaste and special soap. When Ellis realizes that hanging out with Rocco, her Aunt Lydia’s golden retriever, helps her de-stress, she lands on her capstone subject—therapy dogs—and connects with her empathetic aunt, who serves as an insightful guide. Wyman authentically portrays multidimensional teens and adults, expertly pacing the intergenerational interactions among characters who care for each other but sometimes need to learn to listen to different perspectives. Ellis is white, and Aggy is of Indian and German descent.
A witty story about feeling good in your own skin that rings true emotionally. (author’s note) (Fiction. 9-13)Pub Date: March 10, 2026
ISBN: 9780374393359
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Dec. 12, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
Medically, both squicky and hopeful; emotionally, unbelievably squeaky-clean.
A 12-year-old copes with a brain tumor.
Maddie likes potatoes and fake mustaches. Kids at school are nice (except one whom readers will see instantly is a bully); soon they’ll get to perform Shakespeare scenes in a unit they’ve all been looking forward to. But recent dysfunctions in Maddie’s arm and leg mean, stunningly, that she has a brain tumor. She has two surgeries, the first successful, the second taking place after the book’s end, leaving readers hanging. The tumor’s not malignant, but it—or the surgeries—could cause sight loss, personality change, or death. The descriptions of surgery aren’t for the faint of heart. The authors—parents of a real-life Maddie who really had a brain tumor—imbue fictional Maddie’s first-person narration with quirky turns of phrase (“For the love of potatoes!”) and whimsy (she imagines her medical battles as epic fantasy fights and pretends MRI stands for Mustard Rat from Indiana or Mustaches Rock Importantly), but they also portray her as a model sick kid. She’s frightened but never acts out, snaps, or resists. Her most frequent commentary about the tumor, having her skull opened, and the possibility of death is “Boo” or “Super boo.” She even shoulders the bully’s redemption. Maddie and most characters are white; one cringe-inducing hallucinatory surgery dream involves “chanting island natives” and a “witch doctor lady.”
Medically, both squicky and hopeful; emotionally, unbelievably squeaky-clean. (authors’ note, discussion questions) (Fiction. 9-11)Pub Date: Oct. 3, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-62972-330-3
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Shadow Mountain
Review Posted Online: Aug. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2017
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