A fast-paced, unsettling portrayal of abuse and brotherly loyalty.
Born with one ear, 14-year-old Stick, née Stark, has been bullied for as long as he can remember in his Oregon hometown. His tough older brother, Bosten, usually looks out for him. At home, their abusive parents do little else besides smoke, drink and beat the living daylights out of their sons. When Bosten is discovered in flagrante delicto with his best friend, he’s severely beaten and imprisoned by their father. The next morning, Stick discovers Bosten has fled the scene. Stick then embarks on a perilous journey to find him. Intense, brutal and heartrending, Smith’s latest starts off choppy but soon finds its stride. He visually breaks up his dialogue to represent Stick’s hearing disability, which may seem twee at first, but the cumulative effect makes the device work. The abuse is relentless, and it doesn’t let up even after the brothers finally escape their parents. A temporary relief—for both the characters and readers—is found at an aunt’s house in California, where friendship, surfing and sand wash their anxieties away. Neither brother understands just how awful their life is until they experience this respite, and that makes the abuse at home all the worse. Smith’s well-crafted dialogue and characterizations help move the plot along quickly towards an unnecessarily crunched ending. An altogether compelling, if disturbing work. (Fiction. 14 & up)
Pub Date: Oct. 11, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-312-61341-9
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2011
There’s not much plot here, but readers will relish the opportunity to climb inside Autumn’s head.
The finely drawn characters capture readers’ attention in this debut.
Autumn and Phineas, nicknamed Finny, were born a week apart; their mothers are still best friends. Growing up, Autumn and Finny were like peas in a pod despite their differences: Autumn is “quirky and odd,” while Finny is “sweet and shy and everyone like[s] him.” But in eighth grade, Autumn and Finny stop being friends due to an unexpected kiss. They drift apart and find new friends, but their friendship keeps asserting itself at parties, shared holiday gatherings and random encounters. In the summer after graduation, Autumn and Finny reconnect and are finally ready to be more than friends. But on August 8, everything changes, and Autumn has to rely on all her strength to move on. Autumn’s coming-of-age is sensitively chronicled, with a wide range of experiences and events shaping her character. Even secondary characters are well-rounded, with their own histories and motivations.
There’s not much plot here, but readers will relish the opportunity to climb inside Autumn’s head. (Fiction. 14 & up)Pub Date: April 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4022-7782-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
An ode to the children of migrants who have been taken away.
A Mexican American boy takes on heavy responsibilities when his family is torn apart.
Mateo’s life is turned upside down the day U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents show up unsuccessfully seeking his Pa at his New York City bodega. The Garcias live in fear until the day both parents are picked up; his Pa is taken to jail and his Ma to a detention center. The adults around Mateo offer support to him and his 7-year-old sister, Sophie, however, he knows he is now responsible for caring for her and the bodega as well as trying to survive junior year—that is, if he wants to fulfill his dream to enter the drama program at the Tisch School of the Arts and become an actor. Mateo’s relationships with his friends Kimmie and Adam (a potential love interest) also suffer repercussions as he keeps his situation a secret. Kimmie is half Korean (her other half is unspecified) and Adam is Italian American; Mateo feels disconnected from them, less American, and with worries they can’t understand. He talks himself out of choosing a safer course of action, a decision that deepens the story. Mateo’s self-awareness and inner monologue at times make him seem older than 16, and, with significant turmoil in the main plot, some side elements feel underdeveloped. Aleman’s narrative joins the ranks of heart-wrenching stories of migrant families who have been separated.
An ode to the children of migrants who have been taken away. (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: May 4, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-7595-5605-8
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 22, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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