An intriguing glimpse of the future that never reaches its full potential.
Averee’s world implodes when her social media rank mysteriously drops.
In the near future, the social media app Ranked has been incorporated into every aspect of society, determining where you can live, park, eat out, and work—and your social status at school. Averee and Zoe are best friends despite their polar opposite views on Ranked: low-ranked Zoe hates how mindlessly people buy into its judgmental elements while midranked Averee avoids conflict with the popular crowd and tries to minimize stress on her hardworking single mother by not rocking the boat. When Averee’s and her mother’s ranks inexplicably drop, their lives are thrown into chaos. The girls plan to fix this by hunting down PrettyKitty, the enigmatic creator of Ranked. Instead of a simple solution, the friends discover dark secrets behind the popular social media platform. The integration of social media into society and its consequent discrimination and bullying are well depicted in detailed, full-color illustrations. Averee is a sympathetic but meek protagonist, in contrast to strongly opinionated, impulsive Zoe. Dramatic scenes, panel flow, and backgrounds are energetic and vibrant, fitting the story’s tone. Unfortunately, the plot feels rushed, and the resolution of what could have been a gripping high-tech mystery lacks complexity and falls flat. Averee is cued as East or Southeast Asian while Zoe seems intended to be biracial (Asian/White); there is diversity in the supporting cast.
An intriguing glimpse of the future that never reaches its full potential. (Graphic science fiction. 12-16)Pub Date: April 20, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-949518-12-2
Page Count: 144
Publisher: A Wave Blue World
Review Posted Online: Feb. 4, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2021
An engaging portrait of siblings caught in the blame game.
In 1968, 15-year-old twins Pam and Danny have difficulty coping when both blame themselves after they’re attacked on their way home from school.
Fortunately, the attacker does no serious harm to Pam, but he threatens Danny into inaction. When Danny tells what happened, their dad blames him for not helping his sister. Meanwhile, Pam stays home from school and worries about how the students at their high school will treat her when they find out about the attack; she’s sure she’s to blame, since she was wearing a miniskirt. Formerly bold Pam hides in her room and in despair, cuts off her long hair; once-quiet Danny indulges in minor vandalism. Both twins focus on what might have been if only each had done one thing differently. Citra writes in alternating chapters focusing on how the siblings try to cope emotionally with the attack and how each learns some strength from the experience. Although this easily could be a contemporary story, and the historical setting plays little part in the central drama, she sets it in 1968, lending a bit of nostalgia to the narrative, describing Martin Luther King’s assassination, hippies and pot smoking. It’s a sensitive tale, offering emotional insight into the two adolescents, their friends and family.
An engaging portrait of siblings caught in the blame game. (Historical fiction. 12-16)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4598-0286-5
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Orca
Review Posted Online: July 16, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2013
In the end, the touching story of survival carries readers over the occasional infelicities
The rarely told story of the Nazi genocide of the Romani people unfolds through the eyes of a heavily fictionalized “film slave,” a Romani girl forced into service as an extra in a Leni Riefenstahl film.
Lilo is 15 when the Nazis cart her family off to a concentration camp. She’d assumed they were safe—settled, urban, skilled Sinti, unlike Roma who traveled in caravans and were easier targets of bigotry. But there’s no safety in Buchenwald or Maxglan, where her mother is the subject of sadistic procedures and her father vanishes in the night. In a stroke of luck, she’s taken to be a forced extra, a film slave in the backdrop of Leni Riefenstahl’s film Tiefland. Along with the other Romani imprisoned by Riefenstahl, Lilo fights to stay alive in circumstances less extreme than the camps but still horrific. Filmmaking details provide a unique flavor in a tragic story that’s otherwise all too familiar. Amid death and torment, Lilo encounters unexpectedly frequent sparks of human decency. Conveyed in at-times overly expository prose, Lilo’s story is fiction laid upon the life of actual Romani Holocaust survivor Anna Blach. Context is provided by a deeply problematic author’s note, which dedicates more than four pages to Riefenstahl but only three sentences to the modern Romani, mentioning neither the modern reality of anti-Romani bigotry nor the simple fact that “Gypsy” (used through the note as synonymous with “Romani”) is now considered pejorative and should be avoided.
In the end, the touching story of survival carries readers over the occasional infelicities . (Historical fiction. 12-16)Pub Date: Oct. 8, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-7636-3972-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Aug. 13, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2013
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
