A gentle historical novel about finding your voice.
An African American teen struggles with a stutter in 1950s Spokane, Washington.
"Mmmmmy nuh-nuh-name is Mmmmmelvin.” Starting high school is an anxiety-provoking milestone for anyone, but for Melvin Robinson, his stutter makes it that much worse. He wants a strong, smooth “he-man voice” so that he can actually say what he is thinking, especially to his crush, Millie Takazawa. But the stress of high school, where he is one of only two Black kids in his class, is making his stutter worse, and the class bully is taking every opportunity to put him down. Melvin does make a friend: saxophone-playing Lenny, a nonstop talker who lives above the Black-owned but nevertheless segregated Harlem Club and encourages Melvin to be himself. When Lenny suggests they try out for the local TV variety show with Melvin playing his accordion and Lenny on the sax, Melvin must decide if he is mighty enough to show everyone who he really is. Through a multicultural cast of characters—Lenny is Jewish, Millie is Japanese American, and Melvin and his family are Black—author Frazier explores the depth of racism everywhere and the tightknit community bonds necessary for surviving it. Infused with specificity—it’s inspired by Frazier’s family’s real-life experiences integrating a White neighborhood in Spokane in the 1940s and ’50s—it deftly explores universal themes.
A gentle historical novel about finding your voice. (author's note) (Historical fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 14, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-64614-091-6
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Levine Querido
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A thrilling first installment in an adventurous new series.
An orphaned street urchin is recruited into an elite school for thieves.
In an alternate world where France is the dominant world power, 13-year-old Tom Morgan has had to scrimp, starve, and steal on the streets of London to survive. Born into a workhouse, he doesn’t know anything about his father, while his mother may have been from North Africa. One thing he does know is the sort of cruelty that awaits the poor who are sent to the workhouse, and he’s determined not to go back. But when their camp is raided and his friends are captured by workhouse agents, the only thing Tom can think of is how to get them out. Enter the Corsair, a cunning and mysterious man with a proposition: He wants to recruit Tom into Beaufort’s School for Deceptive Arts. From nabbing treasures to forging identity papers, Beaufort’s promises to teach Tom everything he needs to know to become a Shadow Thief and a member of the Shadow League, the secret global organization that helps keep the world’s political power in balance. But Beaufort’s has its own rules and secrets, and if Tom is to survive long enough to help his friends, he’ll need to figure them out quickly. Clever and gripping, this fast-paced boarding school story will appeal to fans of the Mysterious Benedict Society and Spy School series.
A thrilling first installment in an adventurous new series. (Adventure. 10-14)Pub Date: Aug. 26, 2025
ISBN: 9781665982283
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2025
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic.
Chainani works an elaborate sea change akin to Gregory Maguire’s Wicked (1995), though he leaves the waters muddied.
Every four years, two children, one regarded as particularly nice and the other particularly nasty, are snatched from the village of Gavaldon by the shadowy School Master to attend the divided titular school. Those who survive to graduate become major or minor characters in fairy tales. When it happens to sweet, Disney princess–like Sophie and her friend Agatha, plain of features, sour of disposition and low of self-esteem, they are both horrified to discover that they’ve been dropped not where they expect but at Evil and at Good respectively. Gradually—too gradually, as the author strings out hundreds of pages of Hogwarts-style pranks, classroom mishaps and competitions both academic and romantic—it becomes clear that the placement wasn’t a mistake at all. Growing into their true natures amid revelations and marked physical changes, the two spark escalating rivalry between the wings of the school. This leads up to a vicious climactic fight that sees Good and Evil repeatedly switching sides. At this point, readers are likely to feel suddenly left behind, as, thanks to summary deus ex machina resolutions, everything turns out swell(ish).
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic. (Fantasy. 11-13)Pub Date: May 14, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-06-210489-2
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2013
BOOK TO SCREEN
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