by Wendelin Van Draanen ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 5, 2017
A memorable book about family, friendship, forgiveness, and second chances.
In a riveting opening chapter, 14-year-old Wren is roused from sleep at 3:47 a.m., whisked to the airport, and flown to Utah for an 8-week wilderness therapy program—a last-ditch effort by her concerned parents in response to her drug use, lying, shoplifting, and destructive behavior.
Initially enraged and blaming everyone, Wren slowly begins to connect with the others in the group and feel some success at mastering building a fire, purifying water, and surviving. She also contemplates her past behavior: running heroin; slashing her father’s tires and her sister’s clothes; carving a swastika in her mother’s cherished piano. She begins to understand what real friends are—unlike those who used and mistreated her—and to consider the kind of person she wants to be. Traditional tales told by Mokov, an elderly Paiute who visits the camp, add dimension to the story, although the appropriation of Native tropes (campers go on a “quest” as a culminating exercise; Wren braids a feather in her hair in imitation of Mokov) is problematic. Wren and her family are evidently white; one of the other campers is identified as African-American. Van Draanen makes palpable both the outer desert landscape and Wren’s intense inner emotions.
A memorable book about family, friendship, forgiveness, and second chances. (Fiction. 12-16)Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-101-94044-0
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2017
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by Rae Carson ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 2011
Despite the stale fat-to-curvy pattern, compelling world building with a Southern European, pseudo-Christian feel,...
Adventure drags our heroine all over the map of fantasyland while giving her the opportunity to use her smarts.
Elisa—Princess Lucero-Elisa de Riqueza of Orovalle—has been chosen for Service since the day she was born, when a beam of holy light put a Godstone in her navel. She's a devout reader of holy books and is well-versed in the military strategy text Belleza Guerra, but she has been kept in ignorance of world affairs. With no warning, this fat, self-loathing princess is married off to a distant king and is embroiled in political and spiritual intrigue. War is coming, and perhaps only Elisa's Godstone—and knowledge from the Belleza Guerra—can save them. Elisa uses her untried strategic knowledge to always-good effect. With a character so smart that she doesn't have much to learn, body size is stereotypically substituted for character development. Elisa’s "mountainous" body shrivels away when she spends a month on forced march eating rat, and thus she is a better person. Still, it's wonderfully refreshing to see a heroine using her brain to win a war rather than strapping on a sword and charging into battle.
Despite the stale fat-to-curvy pattern, compelling world building with a Southern European, pseudo-Christian feel, reminiscent of Naomi Kritzer's Fires of the Faithful (2002), keeps this entry fresh. (Fantasy. 12-14)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-06-202648-4
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2011
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by Alice Oseman ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 28, 2017
A smart, timely outing.
Two teens connect through a mysterious podcast in this sophomore effort by British author Oseman (Solitaire, 2015).
Frances Janvier is a 17-year-old British-Ethiopian head girl who is so driven to get into Cambridge that she mostly forgoes friendships for schoolwork. Her only self-indulgence is listening to and creating fan art for the podcast Universe City, “a…show about a suit-wearing student detective looking for a way to escape a sci-fi, monster-infested university.” Aled Last is a quiet white boy who identifies as “partly asexual.” When Frances discovers that Aled is the secret creator of Universe City, the two embark on a passionate, platonic relationship based on their joint love of pop culture. Their bond is complicated by Aled’s controlling mother and by Frances’ previous crush on Aled’s twin sister, Carys, who ran away last year and disappeared. When Aled’s identity is accidently leaked to the Universe City fandom, he severs his relationship with Frances, leaving her questioning her Cambridge goals and determined to win back his affection, no matter what the cost. Frances’ narration is keenly intelligent; she takes mordant pleasure in using an Indian friend’s ID to get into a club despite the fact they look nothing alike: “Gotta love white people.” Though the social-media–suffused plot occasionally lags, the main characters’ realistic relationship accurately depicts current issues of gender, race, and class.
A smart, timely outing. (Fiction. 12-16)Pub Date: March 28, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-06-233571-5
Page Count: 496
Publisher: HarperTeen
Review Posted Online: Jan. 16, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2017
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