A sizzling page-turner with an unusual and important focus.
The trials and triumphs of an Iranian Jewish boy in small-town Texas in 1979, the year of the hostage crisis.
Joseph Nissan, whose parents fled Iran under circumstances they have never explained, has a lot to juggle as a 12-year-old—school, sports, bar mitzvah preparations, first love, and ever escalating bigotry and bullying from both the kids and adults of Hazel, Texas. In the first scene of this engrossing, high-energy novel, white cousins Larry and Brian Edmondson show up on their bicycles to harass Joseph and his Mexican American friends, hurling racist abuse until Joseph’s father, an intimidating 6-foot-5, arrives to shoo them away. Khubiar compellingly evokes the complex, uneasy mix of ethnicities and identities that characterized this time and place and explores the role of the police as violence escalates, and drug-related criminal activity plays a role. Joseph’s crush on Vonda Baer, daughter of a white fundamentalist preacher, is so dangerous to both of them that Vonda insists they restrict themselves to passing notes. Joseph gets around his shortcomings as a writer with beautiful quotes from the poetry of Hafiz, one of the many creative solutions this resourceful, determined boy comes up with to the problems he faces, including his very religious parents’ resistance to his playing football. Joseph is a wonderful creation—both deeply good and prone to mischief—and he will captivate readers.
A sizzling page-turner with an unusual and important focus. (Historical fiction. 12-17)Pub Date: July 18, 2023
ISBN: 9798200864973
Page Count: 210
Publisher: Blackstone
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2023
Heartbreaking, historical, and a little bit hopeful.
January 1945: as Russians advance through East Prussia, four teens’ lives converge in hopes of escape.
Returning to the successful formula of her highly lauded debut, Between Shades of Gray (2011), Sepetys combines research (described in extensive backmatter) with well-crafted fiction to bring to life another little-known story: the sinking (from Soviet torpedoes) of the German ship Wilhelm Gustloff. Told in four alternating voices—Lithuanian nurse Joana, Polish Emilia, Prussian forger Florian, and German soldier Alfred—with often contemporary cadences, this stints on neither history nor fiction. The three sympathetic refugees and their motley companions (especially an orphaned boy and an elderly shoemaker) make it clear that while the Gustloff was a German ship full of German civilians and soldiers during World War II, its sinking was still a tragedy. Only Alfred, stationed on the Gustloff, lacks sympathy; almost a caricature, he is self-delusional, unlikable, a Hitler worshiper. As a vehicle for exposition, however, and a reminder of Germany’s role in the war, he serves an invaluable purpose that almost makes up for the mustache-twirling quality of his petty villainy. The inevitability of the ending (including the loss of several characters) doesn’t change its poignancy, and the short chapters and slowly revealed back stories for each character guarantee the pages keep turning.
Heartbreaking, historical, and a little bit hopeful. (author’s note, research and sources, maps) (Historical fiction. 12-16)Pub Date: Feb. 2, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-399-16030-1
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2015
PROFILES
A riveting read.
My fair lady is a spy.
Living under the thumb of her abusive stepfather, sea-wreckage diver Frannie Tasker finds a crafty way to escape after a boat trip in the Bahamas, shortly after her mother’s death in the summer of 1776, ends in tragedy. A day of wrecking turns into a thunderous and violent night in which another ship sinks and a young woman drowns, giving Frannie an opportunity to flee. Frannie assumes the petticoats, gown, and life of the late Miss Emmeline Coates and boards the Ambrosia, tricking the crew into bringing her to New York. Little does she know that her subterfuge would lead to a new life of wealth and luxury, espionage and danger. Convinced by her reading of Thomas Paine’s Common Sense while sailing to Manhattan, the heart of the American Revolution, Frannie becomes a spy for the patriots. As a lady with access to some of the crown’s highest officers, Frannie gathers a wealth of information and passes it along to George Washington’s network. Endangering her freedom, life, and reputation by serving as an asset for the patriots, Frannie risks it all. Rich in historical detail and inspired by a true story, daring and courageous Frannie, code name “355,” does her bit for the American Revolution. Frannie is white, her mother was an immigrant from Spain, and she is portrayed as a supporter of abolition.
A riveting read. (author’s note) (Historical fiction. 12-17)Pub Date: June 23, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5247-7122-5
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: March 14, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2020
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