A beautiful, heartfelt appreciation of the importance of girls’ friendships.
Barnard’s debut is a very different kind of love story.
Caddy Oliver has just turned 16. It’s time she had a love story, so she’s created a list of three milestones to reach in the next year: get a boyfriend, lose her virginity, and experience her first Significant Life Event. This last is very important. Caddy’s life is ordinary and hopelessly average; surely something significant will change everything. And something does happen, albeit gradually and without Caddy’s realizing it, because the event doesn’t appear in the way she thought it would. A new girl in her seemingly all-white Brighton, England, neighborhood, the confident, blonde Suzanne, enters Caddy’s life. Suzanne is fun, a breath of fresh air, but she also seems to be hiding something. When she confides in Caddy that she had been repeatedly beaten by her stepfather before moving to Brighton to live with her aunt, Caddy becomes heavily involved in Suzanne’s life as she continually enables the latter girl’s self-destructive behavior in a misguided attempt to help her heal. Breaking the rules with Suzanne is thrilling, but their adventures only push Suzanne further down the proverbial rabbit hole. The narrative doesn’t minimize Suzanne’s pain and depression, nor does it simplify the gray areas for readers’ understanding. Through Caddy’s first-person narration, the complexities of such experiences are questioned by an outsider who doesn’t understand it but tries, because she loves her friend.
A beautiful, heartfelt appreciation of the importance of girls’ friendships. (Fiction. 13-18)Pub Date: July 18, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4814-8610-1
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Simon Pulse/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: April 25, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2017
An ode to the children of migrants who have been taken away.
A Mexican American boy takes on heavy responsibilities when his family is torn apart.
Mateo’s life is turned upside down the day U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents show up unsuccessfully seeking his Pa at his New York City bodega. The Garcias live in fear until the day both parents are picked up; his Pa is taken to jail and his Ma to a detention center. The adults around Mateo offer support to him and his 7-year-old sister, Sophie, however, he knows he is now responsible for caring for her and the bodega as well as trying to survive junior year—that is, if he wants to fulfill his dream to enter the drama program at the Tisch School of the Arts and become an actor. Mateo’s relationships with his friends Kimmie and Adam (a potential love interest) also suffer repercussions as he keeps his situation a secret. Kimmie is half Korean (her other half is unspecified) and Adam is Italian American; Mateo feels disconnected from them, less American, and with worries they can’t understand. He talks himself out of choosing a safer course of action, a decision that deepens the story. Mateo’s self-awareness and inner monologue at times make him seem older than 16, and, with significant turmoil in the main plot, some side elements feel underdeveloped. Aleman’s narrative joins the ranks of heart-wrenching stories of migrant families who have been separated.
An ode to the children of migrants who have been taken away. (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: May 4, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-7595-5605-8
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 22, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A sweet if muddled tale of the magic of Appalachia.
A teenage witch goes up against the evil king of the mountain to save a cursed village.
Witch-in-training Verity Vox has spent a year apiece in different villages, helping in any way she can as she learns her art. When it’s time to move on, she receives a sign that shows her where to go next. When the latest sign appears in the form of a note begging for help that floats down on a leaf, she’s eager for the challenge. Verity winds up in Foxfire, a village in the Appalachian mountains that’s been magically cut off from the rest of the world for years, leaving its people close to starvation. The root of their suffering is a man they know as Earl, who lives in the hills and strikes deals with the townspeople that ultimately cause crops to wither, folks to disappear, and the only bridge out of the valley to crumble. Verity is determined to change the villagers’ fortunes, but to do so she’ll have to face off against not just Earl but the ancient power of the mountains itself. Loosely based on the Germanic Erlking legend and told in a voice reminiscent of folktales, the story features a queer romance and a cast that presents white. The convoluted magic system undercuts the strong themes of reciprocity, poverty, and privilege, but Appalachian readers will instantly recognize home.
A sweet if muddled tale of the magic of Appalachia. (Fantasy. 13-18)Pub Date: Aug. 5, 2025
ISBN: 9798890032706
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Page Street
Review Posted Online: May 30, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
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