An insightful, engaging tale that celebrates the relationship that sisters share.
Having a genius for a sister is a trial for eighth-grader Sammi.
Sammi and Jorgianna are as opposite as their nicknames: Moonbeam and Sunbeam, respectively. Longing to fit in with the popular crowd, Sammi is mystified by her younger sister’s staunchly independent approach to fashion and is envious of her intellectual accomplishments. For Sammi, acceptance by popular girl Patrice represents achieving the pinnacle of popularity at her middle school. When Jorgianna is advanced to eighth grade midyear, Sammi fears her plans for social success will fall apart, especially as Jorgianna rapidly gains admittance into Patrice’s group. Making matters worse, Sammi incurs Patrice’s ire when Sammi’s relationship with Noah, Patrice’s crush, begins to blossom. Soon the sisters are in conflict with each other and mired in Patrice’s subterfuge and schemes. Trueit explores the challenges of the middle school social scene, keenly capturing the girls’ uncertainties. Delving into the complexity of the relationship between sisters, she examines both girls’ perspectives, with each sister contributing to the narrative in alternating chapters. While Sammi struggles with her feelings of mediocrity in the wake of Jorgianna’s exceptional intelligence, Jorgianna also struggles with the isolation she feels as a result of her intellect. As the girls try to discover how to be true to themselves, they ultimately recognize that their best allies are each other.
An insightful, engaging tale that celebrates the relationship that sisters share. (Fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Sept. 29, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4814-3240-5
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: June 9, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An endearing protagonist runs the first, fast leg of Reynolds' promising relay.
Castle “Ghost” Cranshaw feels like he’s been running ever since his dad pulled that gun on him and his mom—and used it.
His dad’s been in jail three years now, but Ghost still feels the trauma, which is probably at the root of the many “altercations” he gets into at middle school. When he inserts himself into a practice for a local elite track team, the Defenders, he’s fast enough that the hard-as-nails coach decides to put him on the team. Ghost is surprised to find himself caring enough about being on the team that he curbs his behavior to avoid “altercations.” But Ma doesn’t have money to spare on things like fancy running shoes, so Ghost shoplifts a pair that make his feet feel impossibly light—and his conscience correspondingly heavy. Ghost’s narration is candid and colloquial, reminiscent of such original voices as Bud Caldwell and Joey Pigza; his level of self-understanding is both believably childlike and disarming in its perception. He is self-focused enough that secondary characters initially feel one-dimensional, Coach in particular, but as he gets to know them better, so do readers, in a way that unfolds naturally and pleasingly. His three fellow “newbies” on the Defenders await their turns to star in subsequent series outings. Characters are black by default; those few white people in Ghost’s world are described as such.
An endearing protagonist runs the first, fast leg of Reynolds' promising relay. (Fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Aug. 30, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4814-5015-7
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Caitlyn Dlouhy/Atheneum
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2016
PROFILES
SEEN & HEARD
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
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