Patronizing disability tropes let down this well-intentioned tale of peer pressure and sibling bonds.
After enrolling in a new school, a girl keeps her physically disabled little brother a secret from a popular clique.
When her family moves from Saskatchewan to Vancouver, British Columbia, to benefit her little brother, Will, 12-year-old Lauren is lonely—and overwhelmed. For the first time, she and Will—who uses a wheelchair and interacts via a communication board and short, spoken words—will be attending the same school. When Lauren meets Callie, a “tomboy” who dreams of playing football instead of conforming to her parents’ “girly girl” stereotypes, she’s thrilled to have a friend. But Callie hangs out with popular, snooty Treena and Maddy, who mock Will, calling him “spaz.” If Lauren reveals that Will is her brother, will she lose her friend? Though Bates sensitively acknowledges Lauren’s feelings of frustration and neglect, Lauren’s relationship with Will is generally affectionate; she plays with him, reassures him, and enjoys making him laugh. Will himself is never depicted as a burden, and his friend and classmate, Blake, happily includes him in activities such as soccer, which Will’s parents encourage. Unfortunately, the predictable ending abruptly reduces Will to a saccharine inspiration for another character’s epiphany, and one-dimensional secondary characters render the author’s exploration of peer pressure somewhat heavy-handed. Most characters, including Lauren and her family, appear white; Maddy is Asian Canadian.
Patronizing disability tropes let down this well-intentioned tale of peer pressure and sibling bonds. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Jan. 28, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4598-2433-1
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Orca
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2019
A worthy combination of athletic action, the virtues of inner strength, and the importance of friendship.
A young tennis champion becomes the target of revenge.
In this sequel to Legacy and the Queen (2019), Legacy Petrin and her friends Javi and Pippa have returned to Legacy’s home province and the orphanage run by her father. With her friends’ help, she is in training to defend her championship when they discover that another player, operating under the protection of High Consul Silla, is presenting herself as Legacy. She is so convincing that the real Legacy is accused of being an imitation. False Legacy has become a hero to the masses, further strengthening Silla’s hold, and it becomes imperative to uncover and defeat her. If Legacy is to win again, she must play her imposter while disguised as someone else. Winning at tennis is not just about money and fame, but resisting Silla’s plans to send more young people into brutal mines with little hope of better lives. Legacy will have to overcome her fears and find the magic that allowed her to claim victory in the past. This story, with its elements of sports, fantasy, and social consciousness that highlight tensions between the powerful and those they prey upon, successfully continues the series conceived by late basketball superstar Bryant. As before, the tennis matches are depicted with pace and spirit. Legacy and Javi have brown skin; most other characters default to White.
A worthy combination of athletic action, the virtues of inner strength, and the importance of friendship. (Fantasy. 9-12)Pub Date: Aug. 24, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-949520-19-4
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Granity Studios
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
However the compelling fitness of theme and event and the apt but unexpected imagery (the opening sentences compare the...
At a time when death has become an acceptable, even voguish subject in children's fiction, Natalie Babbitt comes through with a stylistic gem about living forever.
Protected Winnie, the ten-year-old heroine, is not immortal, but when she comes upon young Jesse Tuck drinking from a secret spring in her parents' woods, she finds herself involved with a family who, having innocently drunk the same water some 87 years earlier, haven't aged a moment since. Though the mood is delicate, there is no lack of action, with the Tucks (previously suspected of witchcraft) now pursued for kidnapping Winnie; Mae Tuck, the middle aged mother, striking and killing a stranger who is onto their secret and would sell the water; and Winnie taking Mae's place in prison so that the Tucks can get away before she is hanged from the neck until....? Though Babbitt makes the family a sad one, most of their reasons for discontent are circumstantial and there isn't a great deal of wisdom to be gleaned from their fate or Winnie's decision not to share it.
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1975
ISBN: 0312369816
Page Count: 164
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: April 13, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1975
BOOK REVIEW
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SEEN & HEARD
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