by Veronica Chambers ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 1998
A Brooklyn teenager’s summer plans take an unwelcome turn when her mother sends her away for a year in this chatty, fluent tale, a real change of pace from Chambers’s angry, brutal memoir, Mama’s Girl (1996). Marisol and Magdalena, inseparable since birth, look forward to a delicious summer followed by a triumphant tour through their last year in junior high. It’s not to be; despite pleas and tears, Marisol finds herself on a plane to Panama City when her mother decides to attend nursing school full-time. Born in the US, Marisol knows her mother’s homeland only through stories and old photographs; her initial apprehension evaporates in the warm welcome she receives from her abuela, and in her instant acceptance at school. Both in Brooklyn and in Panama, Marisol is rich in friends and relatives, all (but for one hostile cousin) loving and supportive; with the help of Ana, a neighbor, and RubÇn, her first boyfriend, she loses her initial shyness as quickly as she improves her shaky Spanish. Magda remains a part-time character, and some subplots—notably, Marisol’s carefully developed but suddenly abandoned determination to find her estranged father—are left hanging, but Marisol moves between her two cultures with ease, and her Panama is a sunnier place than the tense, divided country of Adele Griffin’s Rainy Season (1996). (Fiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-7868-0437-8
Page Count: 141
Publisher: Disney-Jump at the Sun
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1998
Share your opinion of this book
More by Veronica Chambers
BOOK REVIEW
by Veronica Chambers ; illustrated by Sujean Rim
BOOK REVIEW
by Veronica Chambers with Jennifer Harlan
BOOK REVIEW
by Stacy McAnulty ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 2020
Cinematic, over-the-top decadence, a tense race against time, and lessons on what’s truly valuable.
A reward of $5,000,000 almost ruins everything for two seventh graders.
On a class trip to New York City, Felix and Benji find a wallet belonging to social media billionaire Laura Friendly. Benji, a well-off, chaotic kid with learning disabilities, swipes $20 from the wallet before they send it back to its owner. Felix, a poor, shy, rule-follower, reluctantly consents. So when Laura Friendly herself arrives to give them a reward for the returned wallet, she’s annoyed. To teach her larcenous helpers a lesson, Laura offers them a deal: a $20,000 college scholarship or slightly over $5 million cash—but with strings attached. The boys must spend all the money in 30 days, with legal stipulations preventing them from giving anything away, investing, or telling anyone about it. The glorious windfall quickly grows to become a chore and then a torment as the boys appear increasingly selfish and irresponsible to the adults in their lives. They rent luxury cars, hire a (wonderful) philosophy undergrad as a chauffeur, take their families to Disney World, and spend thousands on in-app game purchases. Yet, surrounded by hedonistically described piles of loot and filthy lucre, the boys long for simpler fundamentals. The absorbing spending spree reads like a fun family film, gleefully stuffed with the very opulence it warns against. Major characters are White.
Cinematic, over-the-top decadence, a tense race against time, and lessons on what’s truly valuable. (mathematical explanations) (Fiction. 10-12)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-17525-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: June 29, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2020
Share your opinion of this book
More by Stacy McAnulty
BOOK REVIEW
by Stacy McAnulty ; illustrated by Claire Keane
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
by Stacy McAnulty ; illustrated by Nicole Miles
by Shannon Messenger ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 2, 2012
Wholesome shading to bland, but well-stocked with exotic creatures and locales, plus an agreeable cast headed by a child...
A San Diego preteen learns that she’s an elf, with a place in magic school if she moves to the elves’ hidden realm.
Having felt like an outsider since a knock on the head at age 5 left her able to read minds, Sophie is thrilled when hunky teen stranger Fitz convinces her that she’s not human at all and transports her to the land of Lumenaria, where the ageless elves live. Taken in by a loving couple who run a sanctuary for extinct and mythical animals, Sophie quickly gathers friends and rivals at Foxfire, a distinctly Hogwarts-style school. She also uncovers both clues to her mysterious origins and hints that a rash of strangely hard-to-quench wildfires back on Earth are signs of some dark scheme at work. Though Messenger introduces several characters with inner conflicts and ambiguous agendas, Sophie herself is more simply drawn as a smart, radiant newcomer who unwillingly becomes the center of attention while developing what turn out to be uncommonly powerful magical abilities—reminiscent of the younger Harry Potter, though lacking that streak of mischievousness that rescues Harry from seeming a little too perfect. The author puts her through a kidnapping and several close brushes with death before leaving her poised, amid hints of a higher destiny and still-anonymous enemies, for sequels.
Wholesome shading to bland, but well-stocked with exotic creatures and locales, plus an agreeable cast headed by a child who, while overly fond of screaming, rises to every challenge. (Fantasy. 10-12)Pub Date: Oct. 2, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-4424-4593-2
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: July 17, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2012
Share your opinion of this book
More In The Series
More by Shannon Messenger
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Hey there, book lover.
We’re glad you found a book that interests you!
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Don’t fret. We’ll find you.