Gallagher’s tale evolves beyond a simple popularity quest, as amid the commotion wrought by her voodoo experiments, Cleo...
A belated birthday gift creates havoc for 11-year-old Cleo.
In the decade since her mother’s death, it has always been just Cleo and her father, and that’s fine. But recent events cause turmoil for the sixth grader. After relocating to Los Angeles from Ohio, Cleo’s transition to her new school is complicated socially, due in part to the taunts from popular girl Madison. Also, her dad’s growing relationship with Terri further disconcerts Cleo. When Cleo receives a “Positive Happy Voodoo Doll” from her eccentric uncle, she is intrigued by the possibilities. Along with her new friend, Samantha, Cleo decides to use the doll’s voodoo to boost their popularity. But Cleo soon becomes ambivalent about the voodoo doll, even as Samantha insists they continue. Gallagher’s tale addresses concerns familiar to preteens about fitting in and friendships. When a hex appears to have a serious consequence, Cleo decides she’s done with magical manipulation, despite Samantha’s dismay. In a comically frenetic denouement, Cleo’s attempts to undo the voodoo complications garner an unexpected ally and a surprising new friend. While the effectiveness of Uncle Arnie’s magic remains a mystery, Gallagher ends the book by foreshadowing Cleo’s next magical misadventure.
Gallagher’s tale evolves beyond a simple popularity quest, as amid the commotion wrought by her voodoo experiments, Cleo gains an appreciation for authentic friendships. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Sept. 22, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-553-51115-4
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: June 28, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2015
Charming, poignant, and thoughtfully woven.
An aspiring scientist and a budding artist become friends and help each other with dream projects.
Unfolding in mid-1980s Sacramento, California, this story stars 12-year-olds Rosalind and Benjamin as first-person narrators in alternating chapters. Ro’s father, a fellow space buff, was killed by a drunk driver; the rocket they were working on together lies unfinished in her closet. As for Benji, not only has his best friend, Amir, moved away, but the comic book holding the clue for locating his dad is also missing. Along with their profound personal losses, the protagonists share a fixation with the universe’s intriguing potential: Ro decides to complete the rocket and hopes to launch mementos of her father into outer space while Benji’s conviction that aliens and UFOs are real compels his imagination and creativity as an artist. An accident in science class triggers a chain of events forcing Benji and Ro, who is new to the school, to interact and unintentionally learn each other’s secrets. They resolve to find Benji’s dad—a famous comic-book artist—and partner to finish Ro’s rocket for the science fair. Together, they overcome technical, scheduling, and geographical challenges. Readers will be drawn in by amusing and fantastical elements in the comic book theme, high emotional stakes that arouse sympathy, and well-drawn character development as the protagonists navigate life lessons around grief, patience, self-advocacy, and standing up for others. Ro is biracial (Chinese/White); Benji is White.
Charming, poignant, and thoughtfully woven. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Jan. 12, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-06-300888-5
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
A deftly told story that dramatizes how Danes appointed themselves bodyguards—not only for their king, who was in the habit...
The author of the Anastasia books as well as more serious fiction (Rabble Starkey, 1987) offers her first historical fiction—a story about the escape of the Jews from Denmark in 1943.
Five years younger than Lisa in Carol Matas' Lisa's War (1989), Annemarie Johansen has, at 10, known three years of Nazi occupation. Though ever cautious and fearful of the ubiquitous soldiers, she is largely unaware of the extent of the danger around her; the Resistance kept even its participants safer by telling them as little as possible, and Annemarie has never been told that her older sister Lise died in its service. When the Germans plan to round up the Jews, the Johansens take in Annemarie's friend, Ellen Rosen, and pretend she is their daughter; later, they travel to Uncle Hendrik's house on the coast, where the Rosens and other Jews are transported by fishing boat to Sweden. Apart from Lise's offstage death, there is little violence here; like Annemarie, the reader is protected from the full implications of events—but will be caught up in the suspense and menace of several encounters with soldiers and in Annemarie's courageous run as courier on the night of the escape. The book concludes with the Jews' return, after the war, to homes well kept for them by their neighbors.
A deftly told story that dramatizes how Danes appointed themselves bodyguards—not only for their king, who was in the habit of riding alone in Copenhagen, but for their Jews. (Historical fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: April 1, 1989
ISBN: 0547577095
Page Count: 156
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: Oct. 17, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1989
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