Both inspiring and useful for anyone who’s ever felt like they don’t belong.
In a world where everyone else seems to know how to get along, Sparrow Cooke, an eighth-grade black girl in Brooklyn, finds solace in flying like a bird whenever she’s uncomfortable, until the day comes when that’s no longer an option.
When Sparrow is found on a rooftop, everyone assumes it’s a suicide attempt, and she’s suddenly thrust into the experience of hospitals, therapy, and a mom who doesn’t understand. But Sparrow wasn’t trying to kill herself. She was escaping her feelings of awkwardness by imagining she was high in the sky, soaring with a flock of birds. This is her main coping mechanism for dealing with her friendlessness and the death of one of her trusted adults, the librarian Mrs. Wexler. Can she learn how to stay on Earth and deal with the things that scare her? An extremely diverse cast of characters, including people of different races, gender, and sexual orientation, drives the strong, delicate narrative of Moon’s debut novel. Sparrow deals with different emotional issues against a backdrop of lyrical language and touching images, with a healthy dose of musical connections that beg to be added to a playlist and a bibliography of favorite books that is as consciously diverse as the cast. Sparrow is a character to learn from.
Both inspiring and useful for anyone who’s ever felt like they don’t belong. (Fiction. 12-14)Pub Date: Oct. 10, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-338-03258-1
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Levine/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: July 16, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2017
Unicorns and adolescent girls, generally considered a perfect pairing, are here filtered through what seems to be an adolescent male concept of what teen girls might like (unicorns, handsome boys, plus some gory bits). Pages of awkward exposition, via the hackneyed device of an ancestor’s journal, launch a lackluster story. Once upon a time, Elayne’s ancestor journeyed to and escaped from Goloth, Land of the Fabulous Beast; now, the modern NYC teen, whose cancer-ridden father has just had another setback, has been called by a unicorn in need to fulfill said ancestor’s promise. Once in Goloth, Elayne spends her time imprisoned and/or responding inanely to hair-raising exploits (rescued from a dungeon, lifted wet and half-frozen to a boat, she worries about the fishy smell of the cloth she dries herself with). She also comes across as a bit dim: Despite the frequent mentions of unicorn horn as a cure for illness, she takes several hundred pages to realize it could save her father. Indeed, there is a disturbing thread of misogyny throughout; Elayne, Princess Amaryllis (whiny and overly fond of chocolate) and even female unicorn Heartsease all spend most of their time imprisoned and answering to the men (there are no other women), and while Elayne eventually foments revolution and overturns the evil ruler, she’s mostly figurehead and aid to heroic unicorn Moonspill. Don’t bother. (author’s note) (Fantasy. 12-14)
Pub Date: March 8, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-375-85872-7
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Jan. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A 13th-century princess wants to be a warrior; the old tale's less forced than usual when set in the Mongol Empire with its legends of fighting women. Emmajin is Khubilai Khan's (fictional) oldest granddaughter, and she would rather be a soldier than a wife. Emmajin struggles to convince the Khan, but her desire is complicated by a growing attraction to the hairy visiting foreigner, Marco Polo. Emmajin's stubborn drive brings both her and Marco to combat and the novel's highlight: a lusciously described brutal engagement of cavalry, archers and elephants. Unlike much of the rest of Emmajin's tale, the battle and its profound emotional aftermath don't suffer from dry overdescription. Otherwise, Emmajin writes as if alien in her own home: She serves "Mongolian cheese," notices her cousins' "distinctive Mongolian male haircut" and rides with a "traditional Mongolian wooden saddle." With such a narrator, it's unsurprising that she finds exotic Christendom compelling, but it is a disappointment. Gorgeous cover art packages this blandly informative adventure, which is spiced with just enough blood and sexual tension to keep readers turning the pages. (Historical fiction. 12-13)
Pub Date: Jan. 11, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-385-73923-8
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2010
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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