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JUNGLE CROSSING

Name: JUNGLE CROSSING
Author: Sydney Salter
ISBN: 978-0-15-206434-1

by Sydney Salter ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 2009

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Mexico and the Mayan people serve as metaphorical fodder to help a white American. Sullenly insecure Kat, 13, pouts on her Yucatán summer vacation. She’s missing a popularity-determining slumber party, and she fears every stereotype about Mexico from bandits to food poisoning—and Dad’s prompt case of the latter from a roadside stand gives cringeworthy textual validation to those worries. On a bus tour including ancient cities, Mayan teen Nando tells a long story. This inner tale about an elite Mayan girl, pre-Spanish conquest, awakens Kat’s confidence, but the parallel is highly problematic. One explicit comparison, between Mayan religious human sacrifice and American social sacrifice of unpopular kids, approaches the obscene. It’s as if Nando’s culture—from a pyramid that tourists are forbidden to climb but Kat does anyway, to ancient religion, to a modern quinceañera—exists primarily to inspire Kat. When she finally (it’s long overdue) releases her conviction that contemporary Mayans are dangerous, she replaces it with a shallow celebration of people who are poor but “so happy twirling around in their simple cotton dresses and bare feet.” Skip. (author’s note, glossary, online resources) (Fiction. 10-12)

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2009

ISBN: 978-0-15-206434-1

Page Count: 224

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2009

Categories:

TEENS & YOUNG ADULT SOCIAL THEMES | TEENS & YOUNG ADULT FICTION

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FINDING MIGHTY

by Sheela Chari ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 30, 2017

A quick, agreeable caper, this may spark some discussion even as it entertains.

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Myla and Peter step into the path of a gang when they unite forces to find Peter’s runaway brother, Randall.

As they follow the graffiti tags that Randall has been painting in honor of the boys’ deceased father, they uncover a sinister history involving stolen diamonds, disappearances, and deaths. It started long ago when the boys’ grandmother, a diamond-cutter, partnered with the head of the gang. She was rumored to have hidden his diamonds before her suspicious death, leaving clues to their whereabouts. Now everyone is searching, including Randall. The duo’s collaboration is initially an unwilling one fraught with misunderstandings. Even after Peter and Myla bond over being the only people of color in an otherwise white school (Myla is Indian-American; mixed-race Peter is Indian, African-American, and white), Peter can’t believe the gang is after Myla. But Myla possesses a necklace that holds a clue. Alternating first-person chapters allow peeks into how Myla, Peter, and Randall unravel the story and decipher clues. Savvy readers will put the pieces together, too, although false leads and red herrings are cleverly interwoven. The action stumbles at times, but it takes place against the rich backdrops of gritty New York City and history-laden Dobbs Ferry and is made all the more colorful by references to graffiti art and parkour.

A quick, agreeable caper, this may spark some discussion even as it entertains. (Mystery. 10-12)

Pub Date: May 30, 2017

ISBN: 978-1-4197-2296-7

Page Count: 272

Publisher: Amulet/Abrams

Review Posted Online: Feb. 19, 2017

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2017

Categories:

TEENS & YOUNG ADULT FICTION | TEENS & YOUNG ADULT FAMILY

- BOOK REVIEW
THE EXTRADIMENSIONAL REAPPEARANCE OF MARS PATEL
by Sheela Chari

- BOOK REVIEW
KARTHIK DELIVERS
by Sheela Chari

- BOOK REVIEW
THE INTERPLANETARY EXPEDITION OF MARS PATEL
by Sheela Chari

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THE WATSONS GO TO BIRMINGHAM--1963

by Christopher Paul Curtis ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 1995

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Curtis debuts with a ten-year-old's lively account of his teenaged brother's ups and downs. Ken tries to make brother Byron out to be a real juvenile delinquent, but he comes across as more of a comic figure: getting stuck to the car when he kisses his image in a frozen side mirror, terrorized by his mother when she catches him playing with matches in the bathroom, earning a shaved head by coming home with a conk. In between, he defends Ken from a bully and buries a bird he kills by accident. Nonetheless, his parents decide that only a long stay with tough Grandma Sands will turn him around, so they all motor from Michigan to Alabama, arriving in time to witness the infamous September bombing of a Sunday school. Ken is funny and intelligent, but he gives readers a clearer sense of Byron's character than his own and seems strangely unaffected by his isolation and harassment (for his odd look—he has a lazy eye—and high reading level) at school. Curtis tries to shoehorn in more characters and subplots than the story will comfortably bear—as do many first novelists—but he creates a well-knit family and a narrator with a distinct, believable voice. (Fiction. 10-12)