A light read with room to delve deeper.
A former competitive gymnast tries to reimagine her life.
When a diagnosis of spinal stenosis forces 15-year-old Caroline to quit gymnastics, the Kansas state beam champion doesn’t know what to do next. Her best friends, Sunny Chavez and Peregrine Liu, still practice seven hours a day. But Caro’s older brother’s best friend, rising senior and tennis star Alex Zavala, offers to spend the rest of the summer coaching her in other sports she might enjoy. When Caro discovers that Alex has a crush on Sunny, she and Peregrine spend a long time plotting to get them together only for Caro to discover that she herself has a crush on Alex. Fortunately, Alex reciprocates—just when Caro also falls in love with tennis and it’s time for the big tournament at the local country club. Henning was herself a high-level gymnast, and it shows: The brief scenes of Caro in the gym attempting high-level maneuvers crackle with authenticity and tension. The rest is a fairly standard teen rom-com with lots of descriptions of food and clothes, lots of who-drives-whom-where, and plenty of snarky conversation. Caro’s being forced to give up her dream offers scope for real emotional complexity, but Henning doesn’t dig for it; the novel stays on the surface, easy enough to read but not particularly compelling. Caro and Alex read as White; Sunny and Peregrine are cued as having Latinx and East Asian heritage, respectively.
A light read with room to delve deeper. (Fiction. 12-18)Pub Date: May 31, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-7595-5667-6
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Poppy/Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 8, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2022
There’s not much plot here, but readers will relish the opportunity to climb inside Autumn’s head.
The finely drawn characters capture readers’ attention in this debut.
Autumn and Phineas, nicknamed Finny, were born a week apart; their mothers are still best friends. Growing up, Autumn and Finny were like peas in a pod despite their differences: Autumn is “quirky and odd,” while Finny is “sweet and shy and everyone like[s] him.” But in eighth grade, Autumn and Finny stop being friends due to an unexpected kiss. They drift apart and find new friends, but their friendship keeps asserting itself at parties, shared holiday gatherings and random encounters. In the summer after graduation, Autumn and Finny reconnect and are finally ready to be more than friends. But on August 8, everything changes, and Autumn has to rely on all her strength to move on. Autumn’s coming-of-age is sensitively chronicled, with a wide range of experiences and events shaping her character. Even secondary characters are well-rounded, with their own histories and motivations.
There’s not much plot here, but readers will relish the opportunity to climb inside Autumn’s head. (Fiction. 14 & up)Pub Date: April 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4022-7782-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
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
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