by Roger Holt R.W. Holt ‧ RELEASE DATE: N/A
A saccharine tale lacking any dramatic verve.
A teenager pining for adventure in his sleepy town finds more than he bargained for when he pursues a jewel thief in Holt’s YA mystery novel.
In 1958, Lincoln Moss Jr. leads a happy if undramatic life; soon to graduate high school, he works part-time at a local gas station and is saving money to buy his first car. He loves his girlfriend, Katie—she has a “heart of gold,” one example of the army of clichés deployed by the author, whose prose traffics heavily in shopworn platitudes. Lincoln also seems a bit bored by his slow-moving life—he is “longing for adventure and my little town seemed like an unlikely place to find it.” To commemorate Katie’s 18th birthday, he buys her an expensive jade ring (she’s about to head off to college, and he frets anxiously about the consequences of her absence). While the ring is being sized, it is stolen from the jewelry store, a loss Katie experiences with anguish. Lincoln decides to undertake his own investigation of the crime and quickly comes to suspect a “leggy blonde” who visited his gas station in a flashy gray Corvette. Holt’s novel chronicles Lincoln’s sudden discovery of both freedom and adventure, and the maturation that comes with it. The never-fully realized backdrop of the story is the absence of Lincoln’s father, whose own adventure—his participation in World War II—ended in death. The drama is never fully captivating; there is something antiseptic about Holt’s writing, even when describing a scenario in which Lincoln’s life is threatened. The entire narrative has a tender, dream-like quality, bereft of grittiness or real darkness, brimming with sentimental sweetness. One can’t help but feel that it was written to be easily digestible for a younger audience, and to be blandly inoffensive for a broader one.
A saccharine tale lacking any dramatic verve.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 9798352373019
Page Count: -
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Aug. 21, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by Daniel Aleman ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 4, 2021
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
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More About This Book
PERSPECTIVES
by Gary Paulsen ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 1987
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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