Rookie Magazine fans will find inspiration throughout; others can pass.
Teen actress and outspoken activist Blanchard attempts a multimedia experiment: an emotional, complex project intended to connect with teens.
Chronicled in a nonlinear fashion, Blanchard’s book is a compilation of journal entries, poems, sketches, pressed flowers, taped photographs, and notes. It includes a list of accomplished contributors, including poets Rupi Kaur and Tova Benjamin, writer Jenny Zhang, filmmaker Gia Coppola, genderqueer artist India Salvör Menuez, and others. Individual pages do not feature credits, so readers will need to refer to the index to determine which material comes from which creator. The loose narrative allows readers to easily digest the at times bleak, anxiety-ridden, introspective, and heartfelt content. Candid pictures interspersed with existential musings include references to getting drunk and smoking. Other topics of reflection are queerness and racial prejudice. The structure is a successful device for engaging curious readers. In an opening note, Blanchard writes, “…these are our stories, our pledges, sometimes our cries out. This is truth. I hope this finds you when you need it….” At its core, the text is intended to empower and inspire; she leaves blank pages for readers to fill with their own personal ruminations. A debut multimedia package that reads like an avant-garde, voyeuristic scrapbook.
Rookie Magazine fans will find inspiration throughout; others can pass. (index, contributors) (Memoir. 14-18)Pub Date: Feb. 13, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-448-49466-1
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Razorbill/Penguin
Review Posted Online: March 19, 2018
A book of hope for lives that need turning around.
The story of how discovering the secret of her birth transformed Stein’s life.
In the opening chapter, the author recalls how, as a 12-year-old girl of mixed, uncertain race adopted into an academic family and a life of the arts, she found a letter that devastated her. Her adoptive mother had long ago made a request that the author’s birth certificate be altered so that she would never learn that she had been born in prison to a heroin-addicted mother. It also seems that, as a baby, she had passed through a series of foster homes, none of which she remembers. “I tuck the paper back into the liner and float from the dresser into my parents’ bedroom and stare at myself in the mirror over the sink, my body in overload” writes Stein. “Time and space distort inside me, I don’t know where I am.” Perhaps the revelation comes too early in the narrative, before readers have gotten a chance to get to know the writer, but such overwriting (and overdramatizing) initially seems to undermine a story that is powerful enough on its own. Through the first half of the memoir, it remains difficult to get to know Stein due to the fact that she doesn’t really know herself. She plainly had some behavioral issues before the revelation—a deep resentment toward her adoptive parents, a penchant for acting out and a hyperactive mind that would likely be diagnosed as ADD—but she spiraled downward into addiction, crime, and unsatisfying sex with both men and women before she turned her life around. The redemptive second half of the memoir explains much of the first, as she learns what heroin in utero can cause, follows a paper trail back to her prison origin, comes to terms with both her birth mother and her adoptive family, and devotes her life to helping and raising consciousness about women in prison.
A book of hope for lives that need turning around.Pub Date: March 4, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-8070-9810-3
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Beacon Press
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2014
A helpful guide full of good, sensible advice to teens feeling overwhelmed by the prospect of major life transitions.
A sympathetic, practical self-help guide for teens facing the end of high school and unable to decide what to do next.
The logical direction for most high school students is continuing their education, whether in a vocational program, a community college or a four-year university. The pressures of the expectations, the preparation and choosing the best option can be overwhelming. And what about the one-third of high school graduates who choose not to continue their education? What is the best path for them? Enlist in the military? Work full time? Travel? Volunteer? Morgan’s handbook outlines the many different options available to teens after high school and provides helpful suggestions on how to pursue each path efficiently and successfully. She covers everything from SAT preparation, writing personal statements and internships to trade school pros and cons and information on what to expect from a life in the military. Anecdotes, brainstorming activities, checklists and journal exercises encourage readers to critically reflect on their options.
A helpful guide full of good, sensible advice to teens feeling overwhelmed by the prospect of major life transitions. (resources, bibliography, index) (Nonfiction. 14 & up)Pub Date: April 8, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-936976-32-4
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Zest Books
Review Posted Online: March 2, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
