Entertaining and engaging, this effort may especially appeal to computer-savvy young teens.
At a Girls Who Code–type camp, seventh-grader Allie Navarro develops a new social-connections game she calls “Click’d.”
After she releases the mostly untested game at school in the fall, it’s an instant hit. Students all over campus are playing. Then Allie discovers that the game can accidentally release confidential information to other players. Entered in a teen coding competition at week’s end, she’s desperate to fix the bug, losing sight of the fact that the game has other unintended consequences as well. Classmate Nathan is also planning to compete. Less outgoing than Allie, he’s made coding the focus of his life. He could use a friend, but Allie has always regarded him as competition, not a soul mate. Even after he helps her with her programming issues, she remains suspicious of him. She has to (believably) stumble and fall before she finally begins to gain some needed wisdom and maturity. Though Latinx heritage is hinted at in her name, it doesn’t emerge beyond that. One of her coding friends is black; Nathan is white. Often the computer nerds in children’s literature are male; depicting a competent female (who is also not a social pariah) is a welcome twist, joining a little boomlet of similar books. Genial Allie’s disappointments are fully credible.
Entertaining and engaging, this effort may especially appeal to computer-savvy young teens. (Fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4847-8497-6
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Review Posted Online: July 16, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2017
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic.
Chainani works an elaborate sea change akin to Gregory Maguire’s Wicked (1995), though he leaves the waters muddied.
Every four years, two children, one regarded as particularly nice and the other particularly nasty, are snatched from the village of Gavaldon by the shadowy School Master to attend the divided titular school. Those who survive to graduate become major or minor characters in fairy tales. When it happens to sweet, Disney princess–like Sophie and her friend Agatha, plain of features, sour of disposition and low of self-esteem, they are both horrified to discover that they’ve been dropped not where they expect but at Evil and at Good respectively. Gradually—too gradually, as the author strings out hundreds of pages of Hogwarts-style pranks, classroom mishaps and competitions both academic and romantic—it becomes clear that the placement wasn’t a mistake at all. Growing into their true natures amid revelations and marked physical changes, the two spark escalating rivalry between the wings of the school. This leads up to a vicious climactic fight that sees Good and Evil repeatedly switching sides. At this point, readers are likely to feel suddenly left behind, as, thanks to summary deus ex machina resolutions, everything turns out swell(ish).
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic. (Fantasy. 11-13)Pub Date: May 14, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-06-210489-2
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2013
BOOK TO SCREEN
An adventurous work whose authentic voice celebrates the outdoors and everyday heroism.
A summer spent summiting the Adirondacks allows a teenager to reckon with grief.
Thirteen-year-old Finn Connelly’s summer is off to a rocky start. In addition to several incomplete class assignments—including a poetry project about heroes—he’s facing vandalism charges after an angry outburst at the local cemetery. To avoid paying thousands in fines that his family can’t spare, he reluctantly agrees to the proffered alternative: climbing all 46 Adirondack peaks over 4,000 feet by Labor Day accompanied by Seymour, the enthusiastic dog who belonged to the woman whose headstone he damaged. As Finn attempts the hikes, he wrestles with what it means to be a hero, a term often used for his deceased father, a local hockey legend, New York City firefighter, 9/11 first responder, and paramedic who died on the front lines of the Covid-19 pandemic. This verse novel is engaging and easy to follow. It encompasses varied structures, like haiku, sonnet, and found poetry. Other ephemera, such as letters, recipes, and school progress reports, create visual breaks evocative of a commonplace book. The first-person narration vividly conveys a disgruntled teenager’s feelings, including moments of humor and contemplation. The novel wrestles with loss and legacy intertwined with weighty events, challenges, and themes—PTSD, alcoholism, toxic masculinity—and their resulting impact on Finn’s emotional well-being. The supporting characters are encouraging adult role models. Characters present white.
An adventurous work whose authentic voice celebrates the outdoors and everyday heroism. (author’s note) (Verse fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: April 29, 2025
ISBN: 9781547616398
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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