An unusual story about forging new bonds.
Carl Chesterfield can see 33 bridges from his Pittsburgh window.
Descended from generations of bridge engineers, Carl is avidly interested in the structures. His creatively frustrated father spends his time repairing bridges because there is no room to build new ones—and strangely, more repairs are needed than ever as bridges are being damaged in unusual ways. Friendless Carl spots a cryptic flyer warning people about the damage to bridges, making him wonder whether someone else also believes that monsters are the culprit. Carl’s father finally opens a food truck near an old bridge constructed by Carl’s great-grandfather where, as a proudly average person, he insists on serving average food, which he mistakenly believes will have broad appeal. Carl finally makes a friend in Teddy (flyer creator and school principal’s son), who broaches the monster theory. However, Carl encounters Frank, a troll who lives under the bridge near his father’s food truck, who, rather than eating them, once protected bridges. Bee, another classmate and daughter of Pittsburgh’s foremost restaurant critic, soon joins the boys. This occasionally humorous novel features a likable cast of middle school kids and their families. Frank plays an amusing role in saving the day—after causing much of the trouble. Most main characters read as White; Bee and her mother are East Asian. Photorealistic grayscale spot art greatly enhances the text, bringing the setting and characters' emotions to life.
An unusual story about forging new bonds. (Fantasy. 9-12)Pub Date: Sept. 7, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-316-54251-7
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
During a school year in which a gifted teacher who emphasizes personal responsibility among his fifth graders ends up in a coma from a thrown snowball, his students come to terms with their own issues and learn to be forgiving. Told in short chapters organized month-by-month in the voices of seven students, often describing the same incident from different viewpoints, this weaves together a variety of not-uncommon classroom characters and situations: the new kid, the trickster, the social bully, the super-bright and the disaffected; family clashes, divorce and death; an unwed mother whose long-ago actions haven't been forgotten in the small-town setting; class and experiential differences. Mr. Terupt engineers regular visits to the school’s special-needs classroom, changing some lives on both sides. A "Dollar Word" activity so appeals to Luke that he sprinkles them throughout his narrative all year. Danielle includes her regular prayers, and Anna never stops her hopeful matchmaking. No one is perfect in this feel-good story, but everyone benefits, including sentimentally inclined readers. (Fiction. 9-12)
Pub Date: Oct. 12, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-385-73882-8
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: Sept. 1, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2010
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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