Exciting, tragic, and gritty.
The Chernobyl nuclear disaster changes the lives of three Soviet teenagers.
Yuri, who’s 16, his 13-year-old cousin, Alina, and their friend Sofiya live comfortable lives in Pripyat, Ukraine—until the morning of April 26, 1986. Yuri is a loyal Soviet citizen and an intern at the power plant who dreams of joining the ranks of nuclear engineers. He is mopping the floors when he hears the explosions of the reactor accident. Sofiya’s father, a nuclear engineer, warns her to stay inside and rushes to the plant to help. Meanwhile, Alina, who is portrayed with what seems to be undiagnosed OCD, is forced to leave her friend and cousin behind as her family is secretly hustled out of the city by a Communist Party official who knows the truth. All characters are presumably White. Though the author admittedly takes a few liberties and the story is fictionalized, the book is well researched and vividly portrays the Chernobyl disaster. The author includes details that paint a picture of the time and place, sprinkling italicized Russian terms and their explanations throughout. He walks a delicate line in dealing with these tragic and politically complex events, mostly with success. A few gory moments may disturb some readers, but excluding them would sanitize the human cost of the disaster. Political maneuvering and corruption are introduced but are insufficiently explored as a cause of the tragedy.
Exciting, tragic, and gritty. (author's note) (Historical fiction. 8-13)Pub Date: Dec. 7, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-338-71845-4
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Sept. 23, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2021
This delightful debut welcomes readers in like a house filled with love.
A 13-year-old biracial girl longs to build the house of her dreams.
For Lou Bulosan-Nelson, normal is her “gigantic extended family squished into Lola’s for every holiday imaginable.” She shares a bedroom with her Filipina mother, Minda—a former interior-design major and current nurse-to-be—in Lola Celina’s San Francisco home. From her deceased white father, Michael, Lou inherited “not-so-Filipino features,” his love for architecture, and some land. Lou’s quietude implies her keen eye for details, but her passion for creating with her hands resonates loudly. Pining for something to claim as her own, she plans to construct a house from the ground up. When her mom considers moving out of state for a potential job and Lou’s land is at risk of being auctioned off, Lou stays resilient, gathering support from both friends and family to make her dream a reality. Respicio authentically depicts the richness of Philippine culture, incorporating Filipino language, insights into Lou’s family history, and well-crafted descriptions of customs, such as the birdlike Tinikling dance and eating kamayan style (with one’s hands), throughout. Lou’s story gives voice to Filipino youth, addressing cultural differences, the importance of bayanihan (community), and the true meaning of home.
This delightful debut welcomes readers in like a house filled with love. (Fiction. 8-13)Pub Date: June 12, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5247-1794-0
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Wendy Lamb/Random
Review Posted Online: March 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2018
Fast-paced and plot-driven.
In his latest, prolific author Gratz takes on Hitler’s Olympic Games.
When 13-year-old American gymnast Evie Harris arrives in Berlin to compete in the 1936 Olympic Games, she has one goal: stardom. If she can bring home a gold medal like her friend, the famous equestrian-turned-Hollywood-star Mary Brooks, she might be able to lift her family out of their Dust Bowl poverty. But someone slips a strange note under Evie’s door, and soon she’s dodging Heinz Fischer, the Hitler Youth member assigned to host her, and meeting strangers who want to make use of her gymnastic skills—to rob a bank. As the games progress, Evie begins to see the moral issues behind their sparkling facade—the antisemitism and racism inherent in Nazi ideology and the way Hitler is using the competition to support and promote these beliefs. And she also agrees to rob the bank. Gratz goes big on the Mission Impossible–style heist, which takes center stage over the actual competitions, other than Jesse Owens’ famous long jump. A lengthy and detailed author’s note provides valuable historical context, including places where Gratz adapted the facts for storytelling purposes (although there’s no mention of the fact that before 1952, Olympic equestrian sports were limited to male military officers). With an emphasis on the plot, many of the characters feel defined primarily by how they’re suffering under the Nazis, such as the fictional diver Ursula Diop, who was involuntarily sterilized for being biracial.
Fast-paced and plot-driven. (Historical fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9781338736106
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2025
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