In many ways Jackie Monterey, 13, is a typical teenager. His parents are a great embarrassment to him; he’s having a boring and frustrating summer; and his best friends don’t really understand him. One thing does differentiate Jackie from his peers, though—Jackie plans to write the Great American Novel over the summer between 8th and 9th grades. After all, Jackie did invest in a book called “Get Rich Quick! Write a Bestseller in Less Than a Year.” The only trouble is that Jackie can’t get past his first sentence. He also can’t decide on the genre of his groundbreaking novel—will he get rich quick by writing a hard-boiled detective story, sci-fi, a gritty western, or an “Indiana Jones”-style adventure story? During his long bouts of writer’s block, Jackie engages in normal adolescent activities—he swims on a team at the local swim club, hangs out with his pals, and gets dumped by a beautiful but unfeeling girl with whom he has absolutely nothing in common. Jackie isn’t an untalented writer, but he lacks direction and focus and is too stubborn to take any advice or help from anyone. To make things even worse, he has a problem sticking with things. Jackie blames everyone around him for his lack of progress—his parents constantly interrupt him and don’t take his “work” seriously and his friends distract him with juvenile antics. But as the summer progresses Jackie realizes that sometimes you do need to listen to other, perhaps even wiser, people. While this novel’s premise is promising, the elements don’t quite gel—Jackie’s friends, while meant to be funny and quirky, are too often merely annoying and Jackie just misses being charming. Despite the fact that many of the jokes and comic situations are belabored and forced, there are several funny scenes and Jackie does turn out to be an endearing character. Not a “must have” book, but one with a certain amount of appeal for its age group. (Fiction. 11-14)
Pub Date: June 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-8126-2738-5
Page Count: 160
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2000
When Clara Luna, 14, visits rural Mexico for the summer to visit the paternal grandparents she has never met, she cannot know her trip will involve an emotional and spiritual journey into her family’s past and a deep connection to a rich heritage of which she was barely aware. Long estranged from his parents, Clara’s father had entered the U.S. illegally years before, subsequently becoming a successful business owner who never spoke about what he left behind. Clara’s journey into her grandmother’s history (told in alternating chapters with Clara’s own first-person narrative) and her discovery that she, like her grandmother and ancestors, has a gift for healing, awakens her to the simple, mystical joys of a rural lifestyle she comes to love and wholly embrace. Painfully aware of not fitting into suburban teen life in her native Maryland, Clara awakens to feeling alive in Mexico and realizes a sweet first love with Pedro, a charming goat herder. Beautifully written, this is filled with evocative language that is rich in imagery and nuance and speaks to the connections that bind us all. Add a thrilling adventure and all the makings of an entrancing read are here. (glossaries) (Fiction. 12-14)
Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2006
ISBN: 0-385-73343-7
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2006
It’s the haunting details of those around Kai that readers will remember.
Kai’s life is upended when his coastal village is devastated in Japan’s 2011 earthquake and tsunami in this verse novel from an author who experienced them firsthand.
With his single mother, her parents, and his friend Ryu among the thousands missing or dead, biracial Kai, 17, is dazed and disoriented. His friend Shin’s supportive, but his intact family reminds Kai, whose American dad has been out of touch for years, of his loss. Kai’s isolation is amplified by his uncertain cultural status. Playing soccer and his growing friendship with shy Keiko barely lessen his despair. Then he’s invited to join a group of Japanese teens traveling to New York to meet others who as teenagers lost parents in the 9/11 attacks a decade earlier. Though at first reluctant, Kai agrees to go and, in the process, begins to imagine a future. Like graphic novels, today’s spare novels in verse (the subgenre concerning disasters especially) are significantly shaped by what’s left out. Lacking art’s visceral power to grab attention, verse novels may—as here—feel sparsely plotted with underdeveloped characters portrayed from a distance in elegiac monotone. Kai’s a generic figure, a coat hanger for the disaster’s main event, his victories mostly unearned; in striking contrast, his rural Japanese community and how they endure catastrophe and overwhelming losses—what they do and don’t do for one another, comforts they miss, kindnesses they value—spring to life.
It’s the haunting details of those around Kai that readers will remember. (author preface, afterword) (Verse fiction. 12-14)Pub Date: Jan. 12, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-553-53474-0
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Sept. 15, 2015
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