Compassionately told, this compelling debut brings to life conservation issues and choices young readers will confront as...
While Addie’s close-knit family and rural Vermont community grieve her twin’s accidental drowning in Maple Lake last winter, only Addie knows why Amos ventured onto the ice that night.
Addie, a future aquatic biologist, scoffed when Amos insisted a large creature lived in the lake. Joining a scientific team investigating Maple Lake for the summer allows her to revisit what she regrets dismissing. Her parents and extended family cherish the pristine lake too, but Addie’s eagerness to explore it troubles them and limits the time she can devote to raising a 4-H calf with her cousin, Liza. (Their fathers grew up on the dairy farm Liza’s family runs). All are reluctant to believe Maple Lake’s in trouble, but there’s no denying the evidence Addie produces with the Chinese American lead scientist’s son, Tai. Also 12, Tai’s a likable city kid who reminds her of Amos. Addie shares her brother’s theory with Tai, and this—with the water samples they’ve collected—points to an unexpected source for the lake’s problems. Tai shares her concern; he’s seen pollution’s impact when in China. Addie’s close-knit, homogenous (presumably white) community wants to blame superstore construction and overdevelopment for the pollution, but not all problems come from outside. Baughman convincingly portrays the varied reactions to the findings as well as everybody’s desire for the lake to thrive. Without a villain to blame or superhero offering easy solutions, the book offers appealing characters whose opposing interests embody what’s at stake.
Compassionately told, this compelling debut brings to life conservation issues and choices young readers will confront as adults . (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-316-42242-0
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: May 21, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
Minor perils and likable characters make for a cozy and enjoyable read.
McCullough, who was a Morris YA Debut Award finalist for Blood Water Paint (2018), draws inspiration from her hometown of Seattle in her middle-grade debut.
On the surface, Sutton and Luis could not be more different. Sutton is a logic-ruled robot coder with a passion for hard science while Luis is a fantasy writer who uses his pen to go on adventures that his allergies prevent him from undertaking in real life. Both are from single-parent homes, and when their parents’ nascent romance grows serious, they are thrust together. Their first encounter is a bit of a bust as Sutton and Luis struggle to build rapport, but determined to give one another a second chance, the families decide on a hike. When the children are accidentally separated from the adults, they must learn to work together despite their differences in order to make it to their rendezvous point safely, in the process learning to confront problems and think with empathy and creativity. With chapters switching narrative focus between the two protagonists, their inner turmoil is handled with sensitivity, creating a character-driven tale that doesn’t skimp on plot. While Luis’ issues with severe allergies are explicit, Sutton’s struggles with emotional expression and sensory overload are never given a name, though they are likely to resonate with readers on the autism spectrum. Luis is mixed-race Latinx and white, Sutton is white, and the supporting cast includes Asian and LGBTQ friends and neighbors. The notable representation of female characters in diverse STEM fields is heartening.
Minor perils and likable characters make for a cozy and enjoyable read. (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: April 14, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5344-3849-1
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: Dec. 17, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
Cleverly structured and sweetly engaging.
A 13-year-old embarks on a cross-country road trip with his famous grandfather.
Grief-stricken middle schooler Gonzalo Alberto Sánchez García’s summer is off to a rocky start. He feels like he’s in a fog, he can’t stop drawing monsters against photos of landscapes on his iPad, and he’s stuck visiting his cranky, standoffish abuelo in Mendocino, California. Gonzalo’s Cuban grandfather is the renowned but reclusive fantasy author behind a “billion-dollar book-and-movie franchise” run by Gonzalo’s mother. Though generally reluctant to promote his work, Abuelo agrees to a tour for the release of the last book in the bestselling series. But he turns the tour into a journey to visit old friends and share his own wounds with Gonzalo in an attempt to help them both heal from the traumas they’ve suffered. Indeed, Abuelo’s plan proves poignantly effective as both he and Gonzalo slowly open up to each other and to all the joy still to be found in the world around them. Cartaya peppers Gonzalo’s first-person narrative with chapters voiced by an omniscient first-person narrator who breaks the fourth wall, directly addressing readers with plot recaps and commentary. While the narrator’s interruptions risk jarring readers out of the story’s flow, the shifts in perspective are charmingly and humorously executed, may support reading comprehension, and further the overarching bookish themes, since the story both revolves around a fictional book series and follows main character Gonzalo’s transformation into the hero of his own story.
Cleverly structured and sweetly engaging. (author’s note) (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: May 6, 2025
ISBN: 9780451479754
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Kokila
Review Posted Online: March 8, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2025
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