by Tracy Holczer ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 2014
Grace’s surprising discoveries about herself, her family, and her friends, and her struggles with sorrow and forgiveness,...
In this debut novel, Holczer presents a tender, transformative exploration of family, loss and reconciliation.
Grace has been moving all over California with Mama, looking for the perfect home. She is sure they have found it in Hood, so when Mama suggests they uproot, Grace puts her foot down. On that night, Mama dies. Now Grace is living with her estranged Grandma—the very same woman who sent Mama away when she was pregnant with Grace. Grace is determined to make life impossible so Grandma will send her away, too. Grace’s voice is smart and observant; her sadness is palpable. Despite her resistance, Grace is assisted through her grief by a cast of colorful, original characters, including her Grandma, who reminds Grace in many ways of Mama. And Grandma, just like Mama always did whenever they moved to a new town, has set up a treasure hunt for Grace in hopes of leading her, and welcoming her, home. The phrasing and the images are beautiful and rich. If the pace begins to lag a bit, young readers invested in the emotional journey will not mind.
Grace’s surprising discoveries about herself, her family, and her friends, and her struggles with sorrow and forgiveness, are engrossing. (Fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: May 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-399-16393-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: March 30, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2014
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by Soman Chainani ; illustrated by Iacopo Bruno ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 14, 2013
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
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by Soman Chainani ; illustrated by Iacopo Bruno
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BOOK TO SCREEN
by Katherine Marsh ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 7, 2018
A captivating book situated in present-day discourse around the refugee crisis, featuring two boys who stand by their high...
Two parallel stories, one of a Syrian boy from Aleppo fleeing war, and another of a white American boy, son of a NATO contractor, dealing with the challenges of growing up, intersect at a house in Brussels.
Ahmed lost his father while crossing the Mediterranean. Alone and broke in Europe, he takes things into his own hands to get to safety but ends up having to hide in the basement of a residential house. After months of hiding, he is discovered by Max, a boy of similar age and parallel high integrity and courage, who is experiencing his own set of troubles learning a new language, moving to a new country, and being teased at school. In an unexpected turn of events, the two boys and their new friends Farah, a Muslim Belgian girl, and Oscar, a white Belgian boy, successfully scheme for Ahmed to go to school while he remains in hiding the rest of the time. What is at stake for Ahmed is immense, and so is the risk to everyone involved. Marsh invites art and history to motivate her protagonists, drawing parallels to gentiles who protected Jews fleeing Nazi terror and citing present-day political news. This well-crafted and suspenseful novel touches on the topics of refugees and immigrant integration, terrorism, Islam, Islamophobia, and the Syrian war with sensitivity and grace.
A captivating book situated in present-day discourse around the refugee crisis, featuring two boys who stand by their high values in the face of grave risk and succeed in drawing goodwill from others. (Historical fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Aug. 7, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-250-30757-6
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: June 10, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2018
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by Katherine Marsh ; illustrated by Kelly Murphy
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