Though Arno’s portrayal of rocky family relationships is perceptive, her treatment of middle school friendship is...
A middle child feels torn between her friends as well as her family.
Twelve-year-old, white Molly Mahoney feels invisible amid her parents’ fighting and her sisters’ acting out. Only her best friend, Kellan, a white boy who has muscular dystrophy, pays attention to her. But Kellan is home-schooled—has been for years—and Molly’s classmates don’t notice her either. After being overlooked yet again, Molly gives herself a multicolored dye job and tries on a smart-alecky attitude. Her parents are unfazed, but the popular girls—Asian-American Nina and white, affluent Christina—take note. Desperate for an invitation to Christina’s over-the-top Birthday Bash Brunch, Molly avoids Kellan—which becomes harder to do when Kellan returns to school. Worse, Christina’s party and Kellan’s Muscular Dystrophy Walk are on the same day, and she must choose between them. Heavy-handed characterization makes her ultimate choice predictable. Christina, a one-dimensional mean girl, offers little incentive for friendship; her lack of redeeming traits oversimplifies the tough dilemmas of popularity and peer pressure. Readers may also wonder why Molly befriended Kellan. Her narration often frames him as an object of pity; his MD is his most prominent characteristic, and Molly doesn’t seem to care about his few interests. Molly’s relationship with her sisters, strained and strengthened by their parents’ friction, is much more nuanced.
Though Arno’s portrayal of rocky family relationships is perceptive, her treatment of middle school friendship is disappointingly simplistic. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Oct. 10, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4814-8032-1
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
A worthy combination of athletic action, the virtues of inner strength, and the importance of friendship.
A young tennis champion becomes the target of revenge.
In this sequel to Legacy and the Queen (2019), Legacy Petrin and her friends Javi and Pippa have returned to Legacy’s home province and the orphanage run by her father. With her friends’ help, she is in training to defend her championship when they discover that another player, operating under the protection of High Consul Silla, is presenting herself as Legacy. She is so convincing that the real Legacy is accused of being an imitation. False Legacy has become a hero to the masses, further strengthening Silla’s hold, and it becomes imperative to uncover and defeat her. If Legacy is to win again, she must play her imposter while disguised as someone else. Winning at tennis is not just about money and fame, but resisting Silla’s plans to send more young people into brutal mines with little hope of better lives. Legacy will have to overcome her fears and find the magic that allowed her to claim victory in the past. This story, with its elements of sports, fantasy, and social consciousness that highlight tensions between the powerful and those they prey upon, successfully continues the series conceived by late basketball superstar Bryant. As before, the tennis matches are depicted with pace and spirit. Legacy and Javi have brown skin; most other characters default to White.
A worthy combination of athletic action, the virtues of inner strength, and the importance of friendship. (Fantasy. 9-12)Pub Date: Aug. 24, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-949520-19-4
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Granity Studios
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
Cinematic, over-the-top decadence, a tense race against time, and lessons on what’s truly valuable.
A reward of $5,000,000 almost ruins everything for two seventh graders.
On a class trip to New York City, Felix and Benji find a wallet belonging to social media billionaire Laura Friendly. Benji, a well-off, chaotic kid with learning disabilities, swipes $20 from the wallet before they send it back to its owner. Felix, a poor, shy, rule-follower, reluctantly consents. So when Laura Friendly herself arrives to give them a reward for the returned wallet, she’s annoyed. To teach her larcenous helpers a lesson, Laura offers them a deal: a $20,000 college scholarship or slightly over $5 million cash—but with strings attached. The boys must spend all the money in 30 days, with legal stipulations preventing them from giving anything away, investing, or telling anyone about it. The glorious windfall quickly grows to become a chore and then a torment as the boys appear increasingly selfish and irresponsible to the adults in their lives. They rent luxury cars, hire a (wonderful) philosophy undergrad as a chauffeur, take their families to Disney World, and spend thousands on in-app game purchases. Yet, surrounded by hedonistically described piles of loot and filthy lucre, the boys long for simpler fundamentals. The absorbing spending spree reads like a fun family film, gleefully stuffed with the very opulence it warns against. Major characters are White.
Cinematic, over-the-top decadence, a tense race against time, and lessons on what’s truly valuable. (mathematical explanations) (Fiction. 10-12)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-17525-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: June 29, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2020
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