A moving and memorable glimpse into one endearing middle schooler’s life.
Teenage sisters lie in order to stay together while their mom is in rehab.
Thirteen-year-old Eli and her 17-year-old sister, Anna, are used to taking care of and covering for their alcoholic mom. After being caught driving while drunk, their mom is sent to rehab, and Anna pretends to be their Aunt Lisa so they won’t get put in foster care. At first, life continues as normal. Eli goes to school and hangs out with her best friends, Javi, the only other gay kid in school, and Meena, her secret crush. Her friends don’t know about Eli’s home life. When money starts to run out and their lie begins to unravel, Eli and Anna have to come up with a new plan. As they discover more about their family, they also learn how to be honest with and accept help from others. Soft-hearted, lovable Eli drives this slice-of-life, coming-of-age story. Alcoholism, queerness, and gender identity and expression (Eli thinks of herself as “not quite a girl”) are all deftly broached, but this is primarily a story of one kid being herself and doing the best she can. The story is never preachy, and there aren’t always easy answers or explanations. Sweet, sad, funny, heartbreaking, and hopeful, it features authentic characters navigating life’s complexities, big and small. Eli and family are implied White; Javi is Puerto Rican, and Meena is Indian American.
A moving and memorable glimpse into one endearing middle schooler’s life. (Fiction. 11-14)Pub Date: April 6, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-64614-042-8
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Levine Querido
Review Posted Online: Jan. 25, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2021
They may have (apparently) lost round one in trilogy opener Billionaire’s Curse (2010), but 13-year-old Gerald and his squabbling twin sidekicks Sam and Ruby aren't giving up. Here they get a taste of the luxury an estate worth £20 billion brings while jetting off to India in high style to claim a second magical artifact before (presumed) murderer and all-around bad guy Mason Green can reach it. Laying broad hints that All Is Not as It Seems—or, as several characters repeatedly whisper, “Nothing is certain.”—Newsome again crafts a lighter-than-air caper. It's all heavily dependent on contrived clues, blundering or oblivious adults, chaperones who consistently vanish just before attackers arrive, conveniently spotty communications, lurid visions and massive gems that evidently sit around for the taking. The pace never lets up, though, and along with learning a bit more about the 1,600-year-long secret that Gerald’s family has been charged with keeping, the young folk survive multiple kidnappings, escapes, chases and life-threatening mishaps. Inevitably they face off with Green again, here inside an ancient Indian temple prone to sudden massive floods. Fans of 39 Clues–style adventures will be swept along. (illustrations not seen) (Adventure. 11-14)
Pub Date: May 17, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-06-194492-5
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Walden Pond Press/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
This lightweight kid-spy romp should find some eager readers.
Thirteen-year-old fosterling Max Segredo knows he’s just one stop away from juvie. Luckily, that stop turns out to be the Merry Sunshine Orphanage, where the third floor is off-limits due to a secret science project, and the house rules include “No unsupervised gunplay.”
Staffed with tough instructors with names like “Styx” and “Stones,” the unusually secure “orphanage” turns out to be a vocational school to train students in “Systematic Protection, Intelligence, and Espionage Services.” Max fits in nicely, until coded messages suggesting that his father, a spy himself, is still alive spark an urgent need to escape. Hale threads the narrative with colorful metaphors and throwaway lines (“But his search was as fruitless as an all-beef buffet”) and festoons it with high- and low-tech tools of spycraft. He ultimately sends his diverse cast of student spies on a field trip/mission that climaxes in a face-off with shadowy LOTUS—a rival organization with the requisite black limos, palatial hidden headquarters, agents who dress like “catalog models for Victoria’s Evil Secret” and even a shark tank. Dorman adds a handful of dramatic full-page scenes, and Hale closes with a note on ciphers. One character’s sudden murder aside, the tone is mostly light, with family issues and conflicting loyalties (driven by troubling revelations about Max’s dad) for added texture.
This lightweight kid-spy romp should find some eager readers. (Adventure. 11-13)Pub Date: June 25, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4231-6850-8
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Review Posted Online: March 5, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2013
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