Only for those readers who care more about romance and the gimmick than plot and character. (Interactive fiction. 10-12)
Readers guide a middle schooler to various romance possibilities in this gentle series opener that’s similar to a Choose Your Own Adventure book.
Tara Singh helps out at her family’s sweet shop, Mmmumbai, where famous Bollywood actress Preeti Chandran chooses to order her wedding cake and sweets. Tara, more interested in Broadway than Bollywood, plans to audition for Dorothy in the school production of The Wizard of Oz and is faced with interesting dilemmas that readers will decide: Should Tara go to the audition or to Preeti Chandran’s wedding? Should she rehearse with Hiro or go to Preeti’s movie with Rohan? The cast is diverse. Tara is of Indian origin (depicted on the cover with dark hair and brown skin), as is childhood friend Rohan (could he be more than annoying-older-brother material?). Best friend Yael Lewis is Jewish (whose bat mitzvah anchors companion title Yael and the Party of the Year). Meanwhile, is Tara’s forever crush and BMOC Hiro Nakahara (with cued Japanese heritage) really interested in Tara? Or will quiet, shy, and clever Desmond Flynn, a white boy with blue eyes and freckles, be the one with whom Tara initiates a brief kiss? The book is heavy on teen tropes, from texting and emojis to eye rolls and air quotes. Characters, however, both primary and secondary, are not well-fleshed-out, parts of the book are repetitive, and the story on the whole is not memorable.
Only for those readers who care more about romance and the gimmick than plot and character. (Interactive fiction. 10-12)Pub Date: May 8, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5011-7568-8
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: March 4, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2018
A solid debut: fluent, funny and eminently sequel-worthy.
Inventively tweaking a popular premise, Jensen pits two Incredibles-style families with superpowers against each other—until a new challenge rises to unite them.
The Johnsons invariably spit at the mere mention of their hated rivals, the Baileys. Likewise, all Baileys habitually shake their fists when referring to the Johnsons. Having long looked forward to getting a superpower so that he too can battle his clan’s nemeses, Rafter Bailey is devastated when, instead of being able to fly or something else cool, he acquires the “power” to strike a match on soft polyester. But when hated classmate Juanita Johnson turns up newly endowed with a similarly bogus power and, against all family tradition, they compare notes, it becomes clear that something fishy is going on. Both families regard themselves as the heroes and their rivals as the villains. Someone has been inciting them to fight each other. Worse yet, that someone has apparently developed a device that turns real superpowers into silly ones. Teaching themselves on the fly how to get past their prejudice and work together, Rafter, his little brother, Benny, and Juanita follow a well-laid-out chain of clues and deductions to the climactic discovery of a third, genuinely nefarious family, the Joneses, and a fiendishly clever scheme to dispose of all the Baileys and Johnsons at once. Can they carry the day?
A solid debut: fluent, funny and eminently sequel-worthy. (Adventure. 10-12)Pub Date: Jan. 21, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-06-220961-0
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Nov. 1, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
On equal footing with a garden-variety potato.
The new kid in school endures becoming the school mascot.
Ben Hardy has never cared for potatoes, and this distaste has become a barrier to adjusting to life in his new Idaho town. His school’s mascot is the Spud, and after a series of misfortunes, Ben is enlisted to don the potato costume and cheer on his school’s team. Ben balances his duties as a life-sized potato against his desperate desire to hide the fact that he’s the dork in the suit. After all, his cute new crush, Jayla, wouldn’t be too impressed to discover Ben’s secret. The ensuing novel is a fairly boilerplate middle–grade narrative: snarky tween protagonist, the crush that isn’t quite what she seems, and a pair of best friends that have more going on than our hero initially believes. The author keeps the novel moving quickly, pushing forward with witty asides and narrative momentum so fast that readers won’t really mind that the plot’s spine is one they’ve encountered many times before. Once finished, readers will feel little resonance and move on to the next book in their to-read piles, but in the moment the novel is pleasant enough. Ben, Jayla, and Ben’s friend Hunter are white while Ellie, Ben’s other good pal, is Latina.
On equal footing with a garden-variety potato. (Fiction. 10-12)Pub Date: March 24, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-11866-5
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Nov. 23, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
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