Perhaps it’s intended as a fiction tie-in to Common Core Curriculum studies, but it’s not at all successful, compelling or...
In 1904, three children from New York City’s Lower East Side are sent to Kansas on an orphan train.
Jack’s father drinks and does not want him. Frances and her little brother, Harold, have no parents to care for them. They meet while boarding the train at Grand Central Station and start out on a journey fraught with unanswered questions while under the supervision of two matrons, one sympathetic and one coldhearted. When rumors spread about their placements, the three children jump the train in Kansas and meet a boy named Alexander. He has fashioned a children’s-only town for himself called Wanderville, building it with his imagination and stolen food. (Alexander refers to taking food from the nearby town as an act of liberation, a usage more suited to the latter half of the century.) As it turns out, the rumors were true; the other children have been delivered to a Dickensian work farm. A dramatic rescue and sympathetic townspeople put a stop to the horrors, and the three orphans and Alexander are ready for their next adventure and book as they set out for California. The tale is fast-paced but superficial, and beyond the immediate appeal of its subject, it offers no sure sense of place or character development.
Perhaps it’s intended as a fiction tie-in to Common Core Curriculum studies, but it’s not at all successful, compelling or memorable. (Historical fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Jan. 23, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-59514-700-4
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Razorbill/Penguin
Review Posted Online: Oct. 22, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A fun coming-of-age romp.
When social misfit Frederick Frederickson rises to popularity due to a case of mistaken identity, he struggles to maintain the charade.
Even his friends see him as a loser, a flea among lions, but 10-year-old Frederick Frederickson is sure that he can overcome the pecking order of fifth grade, someday becoming “his true awesome self.” After a game of dodgeball goes wrong, Frederick can only hope that his family’s annual cruise will give him respite from school. But when a Category 5 hurricane cancels his vacation, Frederick is pushed to the limit and accepts a dare that sends him floating down a river without a paddle. Coming ashore at Camp Omigoshee, a disciplinary camp for boys, Frederick is mistaken for a camper whose bad reputation is infinitely cooler than his own. In his effort to keep up the facade, Frederick discovers that the other boys are also not what they seem. Beasley’s sophomore novel (Gertie’s Leap to Greatness, illustrated by Jillian Tamaki, 2016) is chock full of zany, nicknamed characters (Frederick shares a cabin with Nosebleed, Ant Bite, Specs, and the Professor) coming together in a story of friendship among boys. The boys’ races are not specified, though one character has an Indian name, and Santat depicts one as black and another as brown-skinned; Frederick is white. Readers will find it difficult not to compare this book to Louis Sachar’s more complex Holes, though depth is added with Frederick’s recognition of his economic privilege and questioning of the power his fake popularity gives him.
A fun coming-of-age romp. (Fiction. 8-11)Pub Date: June 5, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-374-30263-4
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: April 15, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
A page-turning adventure that’s truly out of this world.
Roswell Johnson is about to go on a bigger journey than he could ever imagine.
Precocious 11-year-old Roswell, one of the few Black kids in his class, loves everything about astronomy, space, and the conspiracy theories that often accompany these topics. After all, inspired by a UFO sighting, his late father did name him Roswell. Following a major disappointment at the school science fair, Roswell’s ready to give it all up when aliens accidentally abduct him (along with Persephone, one of his grandparents’ chickens). He finds himself on a mission to save Earth from colonization while exploring far-flung corners of the galaxy and strange alien planets. Roswell’s journey is complicated by the fact that he’s being hunted by Reptoids, a vicious race of aliens who want to cause chaos and will stop at nothing. Along the way, he befriends a ragtag group of aliens, and together they race against the galactic clock before time runs out and he loses everything he loves. The combination of factual information and witty humor will maintain readers’ engagement as they follow Roswell’s journey. Much of the information about space, including the names of stars and constellations and facts about planets, is accurate and presented in an entertaining and seamless way. Actor and novelist Colfer also touches on prejudice and racism: Roswell grapples with both the injustices he faces and the ones he sees others confront. Final art not seen.
A page-turning adventure that’s truly out of this world. (author’s note, glossary) (Science fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: June 4, 2024
ISBN: 9780316515047
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: March 9, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2024
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