A stunning novel that exposes modern fascism and elevates human resilience. (author’s note, research and sources, glossary,...
The pitiless dictatorship of Francisco Franco examined through the voices of four teenagers: one American and three Spaniards.
The Spanish Civil War lasted from 1936-1939, but Franco held Spain by its throat for 36 years. Sepetys (Salt to the Sea, 2016, etc.) begins her novel in 1957. Daniel is a white Texan who wants to be a photojournalist, not an oilman; Ana is trying to work her way to respectability as a hotel maid; her brother, Rafael, wants to erase memories of an oppressive boys’ home; and Puri is a loving caregiver for babies awaiting adoption—together they provide alternating third-person lenses for viewing Spain during one of its most brutally repressive periods. Their lives run parallel and intersect as each tries to answer questions about truth and the path ahead within a regime that crushes any opposition, murders dissidents, and punishes their families while stealing babies to sell to parents with accepted political views. This formidable story will haunt those who ask hard questions about the past as it reveals the hopes and dreams of individuals in a nation trying to lie its way to the future. Meticulous research is presented through believable, complex characters on the brink of adulthood who personalize the questions we all must answer about our place in the world.
A stunning novel that exposes modern fascism and elevates human resilience. (author’s note, research and sources, glossary, photographs) (Historical fiction. 15-adult)Pub Date: Oct. 22, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-399-16031-8
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: July 20, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2019
An important collection for older teens.
Twelve original stories explore the many issues teenagers face today.
“The classification of living things is called taxonomy,” explains the biology teacher in Kristin Elizabeth Clark’s “The Downside of Fabulous,” and the stories collected in this volume show how teens identify and classify themselves in the taxonomic kingdom of high school life. Finding is the theme behind most stories here—finding a friend, a partner, a voice, a home, courage—and the stories put a human face on the issues teens face: relationships, sexuality, school shootings, immigration, addiction, and death. Kekla Magoon’s “Makeshift” presents a fatherless “half-black girl who looks all white” yearning for a safe home and a sense of belonging. Fourteen-year-old June Bug Jordan in Marcella Pixley’s lyrically written “Hush” copes with a father dying of AIDS. In “Blackbird,” Lilly wants to be more than “the sister of the crazy kid who had shot his girlfriend in the hallway,” and a new friend helps her to find her voice in a story both poignant and hopeful. Most stories are told from a first-person point of view, though a cat narrates Stephen Emond’s “The Night of the Living Creeper,” and speech bubbles carry Faith Erin Hicks’ graphic story “Untitled.” The stories are consistently strong, though the weight of angst accumulates with the reading of too many stories in one sitting.
An important collection for older teens. (Anthology. 15-18)Pub Date: Jan. 26, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-374-30258-0
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Sept. 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2015
A taut portrayal of grief, pain, and the ties that bind families, to be read with a careful, critical eye.
In her debut novel, Mayhew deftly explores the ways the sudden death of 15-year-old Melon’s mother affects their family’s oral history.
The book’s nonlinear structure makes each section a moment in time that reveals a different piece of the puzzle. The chapter titles orient readers by indicating when the scene takes place in relation to Maria’s death. Interspersed between the chapters is “The Story”—Melon’s written account of the family history her mother told her again and again. The simple prose exposes the difficult realities of many teenagers in modern-day London. Melon is an explosive character. The social workers, her friends, and even the bullies at school tiptoe around her grief, which exacerbates her abrasive personality. Melon grapples with anger and guilt as she tries to understand her late mother. Her explicit and unfiltered language reflects both her frank temperament and the sensitive subjects in the narrative. The sexual objectification of the mother’s black boyfriend is an unfortunate throughline that mars the book. Despite writing Paul as a full and nuanced character, the author does not adequately address the racist underpinnings of the repeated discussions of his body.
A taut portrayal of grief, pain, and the ties that bind families, to be read with a careful, critical eye. (Fiction. 15 & up)Pub Date: Feb. 9, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-7636-7731-2
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Nov. 10, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2015
© 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.
