Amelia possesses the qualities she needs to achieve her goals but, like many girls, lacks confidence in using them; watching...
Meade Creamery opened for business in 1945, and after the owner’s unexpected death, Amelia is determined to keep this local institution going—if she can.
Molly Meade began selling ice cream in the small holiday town of Sand Lake, employing only local girls. When Grady Meade, age 19, the great-nephew to whom Molly’s left the Creamery, arrives to run the business, Amelia’s at first thrilled. (His good looks don’t hurt.) A business major guided by his tycoon father, Grady plans big changes—profits are too small, salaries too high, the location could be better. Dismayed and alarmed, Amelia—usually deferential—resists, realizing that Grady needs her hands-on experience to run the Creamery successfully. As their partnership and mutual attraction grow, Grady’s dad pushes him to maximize profits. Meanwhile her growing commitment to the business distances Amelia from her best friend and fellow employees. All major characters are white. A meandering start and focus on Creamery minutiae slow the narrative, but patient readers are rewarded with a rare, enjoyable portrait of a woman-run business. Operations and decision-making detailed include the stash of PMS tea and tampons in the office and the intricacies of allocating bathroom cleanup.
Amelia possesses the qualities she needs to achieve her goals but, like many girls, lacks confidence in using them; watching her evolve is empowering. (Fiction. 12-16)Pub Date: April 24, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4814-5232-8
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Feb. 19, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Though it lacks references or suggestions for further reading, Arn's agonizing story is compelling enough that many readers...
A harrowing tale of survival in the Killing Fields.
The childhood of Arn Chorn-Pond has been captured for young readers before, in Michelle Lord and Shino Arihara's picture book, A Song for Cambodia (2008). McCormick, known for issue-oriented realism, offers a fictionalized retelling of Chorn-Pond's youth for older readers. McCormick's version begins when the Khmer Rouge marches into 11-year-old Arn's Cambodian neighborhood and forces everyone into the country. Arn doesn't understand what the Khmer Rouge stands for; he only knows that over the next several years he and the other children shrink away on a handful of rice a day, while the corpses of adults pile ever higher in the mango grove. Arn does what he must to survive—and, wherever possible, to protect a small pocket of children and adults around him. Arn's chilling history pulls no punches, trusting its readers to cope with the reality of children forced to participate in murder, torture, sexual exploitation and genocide. This gut-wrenching tale is marred only by the author's choice to use broken English for both dialogue and description. Chorn-Pond, in real life, has spoken eloquently (and fluently) on the influence he's gained by learning English; this prose diminishes both his struggle and his story.
Though it lacks references or suggestions for further reading, Arn's agonizing story is compelling enough that many readers will seek out the history themselves. (preface, author's note) (Historical fiction. 12-15)Pub Date: May 8, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-06-173093-1
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: March 20, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2012
A smart, timely outing.
Two teens connect through a mysterious podcast in this sophomore effort by British author Oseman (Solitaire, 2015).
Frances Janvier is a 17-year-old British-Ethiopian head girl who is so driven to get into Cambridge that she mostly forgoes friendships for schoolwork. Her only self-indulgence is listening to and creating fan art for the podcast Universe City, “a…show about a suit-wearing student detective looking for a way to escape a sci-fi, monster-infested university.” Aled Last is a quiet white boy who identifies as “partly asexual.” When Frances discovers that Aled is the secret creator of Universe City, the two embark on a passionate, platonic relationship based on their joint love of pop culture. Their bond is complicated by Aled’s controlling mother and by Frances’ previous crush on Aled’s twin sister, Carys, who ran away last year and disappeared. When Aled’s identity is accidently leaked to the Universe City fandom, he severs his relationship with Frances, leaving her questioning her Cambridge goals and determined to win back his affection, no matter what the cost. Frances’ narration is keenly intelligent; she takes mordant pleasure in using an Indian friend’s ID to get into a club despite the fact they look nothing alike: “Gotta love white people.” Though the social-media–suffused plot occasionally lags, the main characters’ realistic relationship accurately depicts current issues of gender, race, and class.
A smart, timely outing. (Fiction. 12-16)Pub Date: March 28, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-06-233571-5
Page Count: 496
Publisher: HarperTeen
Review Posted Online: Jan. 16, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2017
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