Sweet as a sticky piece of bubble gum.
Scottish teen singer Storm writes what she knows in this thinly fictionalized account of a Glasgow girl who turns overnight pop star.
Thirteen-year-old Storm Hall knows she is destined to be a famous singer. But when her shot at a school choir solo is squashed by her family’s Hawaiian vacation plans, she makes the best of it by lending her pipes to Wewehi, an up-and-coming Hawaiian band. Wewehi’s single featuring Storm’s vocals is noticed by pop sensation Ivy Baxter, who immediately invites Storm to open one of her concerts. This leads to the kind of instant notoriety that most teenagers can only dream of, but Storm’s happiness is tempered by the discovery that her best friend is dating the boy she (maybe) likes. Savvy students of global pop will quickly make the connection between Storm’s story and the author’s own real-life rise to stardom after she slipped a recording of her music to Elton John. Written in Storm’s kinetic first-person, present-tense voice, and interspersed with tweets and gossip blog posts, this breezy, of-the-moment title pleasantly passes time even if it’s not likely to stand the test of it. Though the one-note plot is pure wish fulfillment, starry-eyed readers may enjoy immersing themselves in the details of Storm’s publicity and personal styling.
Sweet as a sticky piece of bubble gum. (Fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Dec. 27, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-338-11382-2
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Sept. 18, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2016
Well-educated American boys from privileged families have abundant options for college and career. For Chiko, their Burmese counterpart, there are no good choices. There is never enough to eat, and his family lives in constant fear of the military regime that has imprisoned Chiko’s physician father. Soon Chiko is commandeered by the army, trained to hunt down members of the Karenni ethnic minority. Tai, another “recruit,” uses his streetwise survival skills to help them both survive. Meanwhile, Tu Reh, a Karenni youth whose village was torched by the Burmese Army, has been chosen for his first military mission in his people’s resistance movement. How the boys meet and what comes of it is the crux of this multi-voiced novel. While Perkins doesn’t sugarcoat her subject—coming of age in a brutal, fascistic society—this is a gentle story with a lot of heart, suitable for younger readers than the subject matter might suggest. It answers the question, “What is it like to be a child soldier?” clearly, but with hope. (author’s note, historical note) (Fiction. 11-14)
Pub Date: July 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-58089-328-2
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Charlesbridge
Review Posted Online: May 31, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2010
A satisfying story of family, friendship and small-town cooperation in a 21st-century world.
Sent to stay with octogenarian relatives for the summer, 14-year-old Mike ends up coordinating a community drive to raise $40,000 for the adoption of a Romanian orphan. He’ll never be his dad's kind of engineer, but he learns he’s great at human engineering.
Mike’s math learning disability is matched by his widower father's lack of social competence; the Giant Genius can’t even reliably remember his son’s name. Like many of the folks the boy comes to know in Do Over, Penn.—his great-uncle Poppy silent in his chair, the multiply pierced-and-tattooed Gladys from the bank and “a homeless guy” who calls himself Past—Mike feels like a failure. But in spite of his own lack of confidence, he provides the kick start they need to cope with their losses and contribute to the campaign. Using the Internet (especially YouTube), Mike makes use of town talents and his own webpage design skills and entrepreneurial imagination. Math-definition chapter headings (Compatible Numbers, Zero Property, Tessellations) turn out to apply well to human actions in this well-paced, first-person narrative. Erskine described Asperger’s syndrome from the inside in Mockingbird (2010). Here, it’s a likely cause for the rift between father and son touchingly mended at the novel's cinematic conclusion.
A satisfying story of family, friendship and small-town cooperation in a 21st-century world. (Fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: June 9, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-399-25505-2
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: April 18, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2011
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