An absorbing story about a strong girl living during tumultuous times.
The year is 1857, Indians are rising up against the colonial British East India Company, and Meera is about to leave her childhood home.
As per tradition, Meera and Krishna were married when she was just 4. When she turns 13 in a few days, Meera will be considered ready to be a wife. But on the day she’s supposed to move in with her husband’s family, disaster strikes: Krishna is killed. According to their families’ customs, Meera must commit sati, burning herself to death on Krishna’s funeral pyre. Luckily, her aunt helps her escape, and Meera flees to the city of Indranagar, where she ends up working in the kitchen of a high-ranking British family. Meera’s plan is to keep her head down and save enough to make a fresh start, but things change when her new friend Bhavani invites her to join a group of underground revolutionaries working toward India’s freedom. Meera must decide whether to fight for her country, her future, or both. The final third of this historical novel is laced with twists, turns, and reveals that are both surprising and riveting. Meera’s transformation from scared child to bold revolutionary is especially gratifying. Informed readers may notice clues to some characters’ castes, but the subject of caste is not directly addressed even though the British at this time were using the caste system to turn Indians against each other.
An absorbing story about a strong girl living during tumultuous times. (map, author’s note, historical note, timeline, glossary) (Historical fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Feb. 24, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-64379-040-4
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Lee & Low Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 18, 2021
Brava!
From award winner Telgemeier (Smile, 2010), a pitch-perfect graphic novel portrayal of a middle school musical, adroitly capturing the drama both on and offstage.
Seventh-grader Callie Marin is over-the-moon to be on stage crew again this year for Eucalyptus Middle School’s production of Moon over Mississippi. Callie's just getting over popular baseball jock and eighth-grader Greg, who crushed her when he left Callie to return to his girlfriend, Bonnie, the stuck-up star of the play. Callie's healing heart is quickly captured by Justin and Jesse Mendocino, the two very cute twins who are working on the play with her. Equally determined to make the best sets possible with a shoestring budget and to get one of the Mendocino boys to notice her, the immensely likable Callie will find this to be an extremely drama-filled experience indeed. The palpably engaging and whip-smart characterization ensures that the charisma and camaraderie run high among those working on the production. When Greg snubs Callie in the halls and misses her reference to Guys and Dolls, one of her friends assuredly tells her, "Don't worry, Cal. We’re the cool kids….He's the dork." With the clear, stylish art, the strongly appealing characters and just the right pinch of drama, this book will undoubtedly make readers stand up and cheer.
Brava! (Graphic fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-545-32698-8
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Graphix/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: July 21, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2012
SEEN & HEARD
An endearing protagonist runs the first, fast leg of Reynolds' promising relay.
Castle “Ghost” Cranshaw feels like he’s been running ever since his dad pulled that gun on him and his mom—and used it.
His dad’s been in jail three years now, but Ghost still feels the trauma, which is probably at the root of the many “altercations” he gets into at middle school. When he inserts himself into a practice for a local elite track team, the Defenders, he’s fast enough that the hard-as-nails coach decides to put him on the team. Ghost is surprised to find himself caring enough about being on the team that he curbs his behavior to avoid “altercations.” But Ma doesn’t have money to spare on things like fancy running shoes, so Ghost shoplifts a pair that make his feet feel impossibly light—and his conscience correspondingly heavy. Ghost’s narration is candid and colloquial, reminiscent of such original voices as Bud Caldwell and Joey Pigza; his level of self-understanding is both believably childlike and disarming in its perception. He is self-focused enough that secondary characters initially feel one-dimensional, Coach in particular, but as he gets to know them better, so do readers, in a way that unfolds naturally and pleasingly. His three fellow “newbies” on the Defenders await their turns to star in subsequent series outings. Characters are black by default; those few white people in Ghost’s world are described as such.
An endearing protagonist runs the first, fast leg of Reynolds' promising relay. (Fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Aug. 30, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4814-5015-7
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Caitlyn Dlouhy/Atheneum
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2016
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