A wholesome story with room and grace for all the characters to learn and grow.
For eighth grader Ali Khan, being Muslim, Pakistani, and an immigrant to Canada has always felt like holding the short end of the stick.
Dealing with changing friendship dynamics, the beginnings of a crush, his family’s social status, and the tug of his interests versus parental pressures has put Ali in a constant state of flux. His parents had to take on odd jobs—his doctor father drives a taxi, his schoolteacher mother assists their apartment manager, and his retired professor grandfather works as a mall security guard. Ali and his brother, Osama, who prefer to go by Al and Sam, try to fit in with their peers, but they struggle with microaggressions. At school, constant jokes about their food and skin color chip away at their self-esteem. At home, their parents expect them to excel academically and, though Ali loves writing poetry, frown at creative pursuits. Ali’s conflicting thoughts—his fraught relationship with his white best friend, his pride at his father’s heroic delivery of a baby in his taxi, and a frightening racist incident—find release in his poems. This coming-of-age story examines issues that are relatable to many Muslim readers, including self-censoring of one’s identity, deflecting racist banter, and facing hate crimes. Though some of the writing feels preachy, Ali’s teacher’s persistent efforts to reach him, his grandfather’s support, and his friends’ solidarity offer road maps for building community.
A wholesome story with room and grace for all the characters to learn and grow. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: March 12, 2024
ISBN: 9781459837942
Page Count: 264
Publisher: Orca
Review Posted Online: Dec. 16, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2024
A successful call for creating and imagining, even if the story itself falls short.
In the dystopian, totalitarian world of 2099, 14-year-old Tessa and her family are desperate to solve the mystery of her twin brother Theo’s disappearance.
Tessa is growing up in a time when playgrounds are historical relics, surveillance cameras are everywhere, music is outlawed, and owning books is illegal. Under the absolute rule of Zokiris, the decadeslong leader of her territory, people are heavily controlled. When Theo vanishes under mysterious circumstances and his name is erased from the Territory Statistics list, Tessa’s 135-year-old neighbor, Miriam, gives the family contraband books that become central to figuring out Theo’s whereabouts. Most books have long since been seized and stored away in Building 903; Tessa is intrigued by their presence in her home, while her mother is terrified. Lowry, the acclaimed, award-winning author of The Giver (1993), shines in her creation of uncomfortably believable dystopian societies. Tessa’s painfully limited world is fully imagined, with its own history, laws, and norms. Her relationship with her brother reads as realistic and tender and is crucial to the mystery. Miriam is the most strongly developed character: wise and independent, unafraid and hopeful. While the climb to the book’s climax is captivating, the hurried resolution is disappointing. The powerful messaging around the importance of literature and imagination certainly resonates, however. The main characters present white.
A successful call for creating and imagining, even if the story itself falls short. (Dystopian. 9-12)Pub Date: Sept. 29, 2026
ISBN: 9780063515109
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Clarion/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 6, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2026
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
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