A fast-paced escapade that draws real-life parallels to gaming culture.
A young gamer seeks a grand prize.
Jaden Stiles is a talented seventh-grade gamer who loves to best online opponents in his favorite battle game, Cross Ups IV. Unleashing his avatar’s Dragon Fire, he defeats a player with the gamertag, Kn1ght_Rage to maintain his four-month winning streak and is invited to the city’s biggest game tournament, the T3. However, he’s just shy of his 13th birthday and needs a parent’s signature to be a contender. Jaden knows better than to ask—he has hidden his gaming from his overprotective Chinese mother—and engages in all manner of deceit. He confides in Cali, the pretty girl next door, who is dealing with her own real-world crisis. What’s more, Jaden and his crew must also dodge bullies at school who want to fight in real life. Chiang cleverly uses Jaden’s gamer thinking and lessons from school to address real-world issues. The struggle of a mixed-race (white/Chinese), Westernized child growing up in a strict Chinese household is approachable, and the eclectic mix of siblings, friends, and enemies is conspicuously diverse. However, Jaden’s banter with his other first-generation buddies, which plays with and takes aim at common stereotypes, while familiar and realistic, may still elicit some winces. The text is punctuated with Choi’s savvy art, which serves up humor and karate-kicking zingers. Overall, it’s a delightful story—readers who forge ahead will be drawn in by the endearing characters and rewarded by its satisfying conclusion.
A fast-paced escapade that draws real-life parallels to gaming culture. (Fiction. 9-13)Pub Date: March 13, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-77321-009-4
Page Count: 200
Publisher: Annick Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
A pitch-perfect middle-grade novel that insightfully explores timely topics with authenticity and warmth.
A nuanced novel about a neurodiverse preteen’s political and social awakening by a Pura Belpré Honor–winning author.
Sixth grader Emilia Rosa Torres sometimes has a hard time keeping up with schoolwork and concentrating on one thing at a time, but her software-developer mother and superinvolved abuelita help her keep on task. Days before her father’s return to their Atlanta suburb from his most recent deployment, her mother goes on a business trip, leaving the middle schooler to juggle his mood swings, her friend troubles, and her looming assignments all on her own. When a social studies project opens her eyes to injustices past and present, Emilia begins to find her voice and use it to make an impact on her community. Writing with sensitivity and respectful complexity, Cartaya tackles weighty issues, such as immigration, PTSD, and microaggressions, through the lens of a budding tinkerer and activist who has ADHD. The members of this Cuban American family don’t all practice the same religion, with Emilia’s Catholic grandmother faithfully attending Mass multiple times a week and the protagonist’s mother celebrating her culture’s Yoruba roots with Santería. Conversations on race and gender crop up through the narrative as Emilia’s grandmother likes to emphasize her family’s European heritage—Emilia can pass as white, with her fair complexion, light eyes and auburn hair. All of these larger issues are effortlessly woven in with skill and humor, as is the Spanish her family easily mixes with English.
A pitch-perfect middle-grade novel that insightfully explores timely topics with authenticity and warmth. (author’s note) (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Aug. 6, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-451-47972-3
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Kokila
Review Posted Online: April 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PROFILES
Entrancing and uplifting.
A small dog, the elderly woman who owns him, and a homeless girl come together to create a tale of serendipity.
Piper, almost 12, her parents, and her younger brother are at the bottom of a long slide toward homelessness. Finally in a family shelter, Piper finds that her newfound safety gives her the opportunity to reach out to someone who needs help even more. Jewel, mentally ill, lives in the park with her dog, Baby. Unwilling to leave her pet, and forbidden to enter the shelter with him, she struggles with the winter weather. Ree, also homeless and with a large dog, helps when she can, but after Jewel gets sick and is hospitalized, Baby’s taken to the animal shelter, and Ree can’t manage the complex issues alone. It’s Piper, using her best investigative skills, who figures out Jewel’s backstory. Still, she needs all the help of the shelter Firefly Girls troop that she joins to achieve her accomplishment: to raise enough money to provide Jewel and Baby with a secure, hopeful future and, maybe, with their kindness, to inspire a happier story for Ree. Told in the authentic alternating voices of loving child and loyal dog, this tale could easily slump into a syrupy melodrama, but Pyron lets her well-drawn characters earn their believable happy ending, step by challenging step, by reaching out and working together. Piper, her family, and Jewel present white; Pyron uses hair and naming convention, respectively, to cue Ree as black and Piper’s friend Gabriela as Latinx.
Entrancing and uplifting. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Aug. 13, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-06-283922-0
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: April 9, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2019
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