Ten-year-old Tessa Drummond has to cope with the guilt she feels about the alcohol-related car accident that killed her 16-year-old brother Scott—she knew that he lied to their parents about what he was doing that night—and her mother’s subsequent withdrawal and depression. In this touching first-person problem novel for middle-grade readers, Wallace-Brodeur (Home by Five, 1992, etc.) writes knowingly about the inherent instability and disorganization of the family unit after a beloved child dies, leaving behind a hole that can neither be filled nor fixed by the surviving sibling. Tessa, the second child in her family, feels that she’s second not only in birth order, but in her mother’s heart as well. Her mother historically identified her blue-eyed son as being like her side of the family, saying that mother and son were “kindred spirits,” while characterizing Tessa as “all Drummond,” as in her husband’s family. As her mother becomes more and more emotionally distant, Tessa struggles to keep herself whole, resourcefully developing much-needed relationships with two grown women, a neighbor who becomes her adopted bubbe, or grandmother, and Ms. Dunn, her charismatic teacher and track coach. When Ms. Dunn unaccountably disappears from the school without saying goodbye, Tessa is heartbroken and furious, her feelings of desertion magnified because she’s unable to express these sentiments to her true betrayer, her mother. This kind of novel demands a hopeful conclusion, and Wallace-Brodeur delivers, using her skill and perception to turn a rather conventional pat ending into a moving moment. (Fiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-525-46836-6
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2001
On equal footing with a garden-variety potato.
The new kid in school endures becoming the school mascot.
Ben Hardy has never cared for potatoes, and this distaste has become a barrier to adjusting to life in his new Idaho town. His school’s mascot is the Spud, and after a series of misfortunes, Ben is enlisted to don the potato costume and cheer on his school’s team. Ben balances his duties as a life-sized potato against his desperate desire to hide the fact that he’s the dork in the suit. After all, his cute new crush, Jayla, wouldn’t be too impressed to discover Ben’s secret. The ensuing novel is a fairly boilerplate middle–grade narrative: snarky tween protagonist, the crush that isn’t quite what she seems, and a pair of best friends that have more going on than our hero initially believes. The author keeps the novel moving quickly, pushing forward with witty asides and narrative momentum so fast that readers won’t really mind that the plot’s spine is one they’ve encountered many times before. Once finished, readers will feel little resonance and move on to the next book in their to-read piles, but in the moment the novel is pleasant enough. Ben, Jayla, and Ben’s friend Hunter are white while Ellie, Ben’s other good pal, is Latina.
On equal footing with a garden-variety potato. (Fiction. 10-12)Pub Date: March 24, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-11866-5
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Nov. 23, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
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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