When Yancy’s older brother threatens Yancy’s horse Shy, running away seems the only answer. For all of Yancy’s 15 years, he confides to his journal, he’s felt threatened by Will, his Conduct Disorder–diagnosed brother. To protect Shy, Yancy flees into the California wilderness with the horse. After an educational bout of hard labor assisting the Mexican ranch hand Tavo (who returns to Veracruz and vanishes from Yancy’s consciousness once he’s served his narrative purpose), Yancy is returned home. With his brother increasingly violent and his parents impotent, it’s only a matter of time until someone is seriously hurt. All’s well that ends well—at least for Yancy, who gets a girlfriend, a safe home for his horse and his parents to himself. Too bad for Will, who gets committed to a facility where he’s drugged to the gills. Huang’s cartoons add spice and verisimilitude to Yancy’s journal, despite the distractions of a handwriting-style typeface. The tale’s many weaknesses are made up for by Yancy’s engaging writing style, alternating adolescent poems, narrative and comics. (Fiction. 13-15)
Pub Date: March 2, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-4231-1898-5
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Review Posted Online: Dec. 30, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2010
Categories: TEEN FAMILY | TEEN SOCIAL THEMES
Did you like this book?
BOOK REVIEW
Couloumbis’s debut carries a family through early stages of grief with grace, sensitivity, and a healthy dose of laughter. In the wake of Baby’s sudden death, the three Deans remaining put up no resistance when Aunt Patty swoops in to take away 12-year-old Willa Jo and suddenly, stubbornly mute JoAnn, called “Little Sister,” in the misguided belief that their mother needs time alone. Well-meaning but far too accustomed to getting her way, Aunt Patty buys the children unwanted new clothes, enrolls them in a Bible day camp for one disastrous day, and even tries to line up friends for them. While politely tolerating her hovering, the two inseparable sisters find their own path, hooking up with a fearless, wonderfully plainspoken teenaged neighbor and her dirt-loving brothers, then, acting on an obscure but ultimately healing impulse, climbing out onto the roof to get a bit closer to Heaven, and Baby. Willa Jo tells the tale in a nonlinear, back-and-forth fashion that not only prepares readers emotionally for her heartrending account of Baby’s death, but also artfully illuminates each character’s depths and foibles; the loving relationship between Patty and her wiser husband Hob is just as complex and clearly drawn as that of Willa Jo and Little Sister. Lightening the tone by poking gentle fun at Patty and some of her small-town neighbors, the author creates a cast founded on likable, real-seeming people who grow and change in response to tragedy. (Fiction. 11-13)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-399-23389-X
Page Count: 211
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1999
Categories: TEEN FAMILY | TEEN SOCIAL THEMES
Did you like this book?
An eleventh-grade girl wants to start a relationship but is stymied by depression and anxiety.
Syd knows her depression isn’t really out of control, like some people’s. She can usually manage the crushing fog that weighs her down: tricking herself into getting out of bed by playing the phone game; biking around Vancouver, British Columbia, until she’s exhausted; investing online with her cantankerous grandfather; eating just enough to get by. It works well enough until her lab partner, Paul, starts texting and flirting. Syd would respond in kind if she could, but she’s afraid to make eye contact or have conversations with new people—how could she possibly start a relationship? Fading into the background would be ideal, but her gregarious family has other plans. Her mother, revitalizing the family Passover celebration, ropes Syd into embarrassing Jewish singalongs. Worse, Syd’s vivacious sister wants to perform The Vagina Monologues for the school drama festival, and she’s written her own monologue—one that uses “the c-word”! The oozing darkness that dominates Syd’s thoughts is authentically represented in her present-tense narration and appropriately addressed with professional mental health treatment. Frustratingly, however, Syd’s nervousness about romantic and sexual intimacy is pathologized as a curable symptom of her mental illness.
An approachable, earnest, feel-good romance between a white Jewish girl and a Chinese-Canadian immigrant boy provides the flavor for a tale of recovery and empowerment . (Fiction. 13-15)Pub Date: March 7, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4598-1184-3
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Orca
Review Posted Online: Jan. 17, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2017
Categories: TEEN SOCIAL THEMES
Did you like this book?
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2020 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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.
