Readers will be eager for this empathetic protagonist’s next appearance.
Farah is trying to navigate fifth grade and protect and care for her kindergartner brother, all without worrying her parents.
Farah lives in Harbortown with her parents and younger brother, Samir, who has special needs. Her friends call her Farah Rocks since her Arabic last name, Hajjar, means “rocks.” Farah and her best friend, Allie Liu, are excited to apply to the Magnet Academy for middle school. Farah must keep her grades up and write an essay for the application, but she has a lot on her mind. Compounding her general anxiety about leaving Samir if she gets into the new school is a bullying new white student, whose cruelty to her little brother doesn’t seem to bother Allie enough. When she tries to tell the adults at school, no one takes her seriously. Readers will ache as, acting out of care and love, Farah takes a risk when she attempts to take on the bully without the help of her parents. Darraj writes a strong character who must take on a lot as a fifth grader. Intimate cultural details—Farah’s dad says “bancakes” because “in Arabic, the letters p and v don’t exist”; the family has the surname Hajjar due to their Jerusalem stonecutter origins—add to the authenticity of the portrayal of the family’s Palestinian ethnicity. Allie and her family are Chinese. A hummus recipe and glossaries of Arabic and select English words are included at the end.
Readers will be eager for this empathetic protagonist’s next appearance. (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4965-8339-0
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Stone Arch Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2019
Telgemeier’s bold colors, superior visual storytelling, and unusual subject matter will keep readers emotionally engaged and...
Catrina narrates the story of her mixed-race (Latino/white) family’s move from Southern California to Bahía de la Luna on the Northern California coast.
Dad has a new job, but it’s little sister Maya’s lungs that motivate the move: she has had cystic fibrosis since birth—a degenerative breathing condition. Despite her health, Maya loves adventure, even if her lungs suffer for it and even when Cat must follow to keep her safe. When Carlos, a tall, brown, and handsome teen Ghost Tour guide introduces the sisters to the Bahía ghosts—most of whom were Spanish-speaking Mexicans when alive—they fascinate Maya and she them, but the terrified Cat wants only to get herself and Maya back to safety. When the ghost adventure leads to Maya’s hospitalization, Cat blames both herself and Carlos, which makes seeing him at school difficult. As Cat awakens to the meaning of Halloween and Day of the Dead in this strange new home, she comes to understand the importance of the ghosts both to herself and to Maya. Telgemeier neatly balances enough issues that a lesser artist would split them into separate stories and delivers as much delight textually as visually. The backmatter includes snippets from Telgemeier’s sketchbook and a photo of her in Día makeup.
Telgemeier’s bold colors, superior visual storytelling, and unusual subject matter will keep readers emotionally engaged and unable to put down this compelling tale. (Graphic fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 13, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-545-54061-2
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: July 1, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2016
Charming, poignant, and thoughtfully woven.
An aspiring scientist and a budding artist become friends and help each other with dream projects.
Unfolding in mid-1980s Sacramento, California, this story stars 12-year-olds Rosalind and Benjamin as first-person narrators in alternating chapters. Ro’s father, a fellow space buff, was killed by a drunk driver; the rocket they were working on together lies unfinished in her closet. As for Benji, not only has his best friend, Amir, moved away, but the comic book holding the clue for locating his dad is also missing. Along with their profound personal losses, the protagonists share a fixation with the universe’s intriguing potential: Ro decides to complete the rocket and hopes to launch mementos of her father into outer space while Benji’s conviction that aliens and UFOs are real compels his imagination and creativity as an artist. An accident in science class triggers a chain of events forcing Benji and Ro, who is new to the school, to interact and unintentionally learn each other’s secrets. They resolve to find Benji’s dad—a famous comic-book artist—and partner to finish Ro’s rocket for the science fair. Together, they overcome technical, scheduling, and geographical challenges. Readers will be drawn in by amusing and fantastical elements in the comic book theme, high emotional stakes that arouse sympathy, and well-drawn character development as the protagonists navigate life lessons around grief, patience, self-advocacy, and standing up for others. Ro is biracial (Chinese/White); Benji is White.
Charming, poignant, and thoughtfully woven. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Jan. 12, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-06-300888-5
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2020
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