In sum, the story conveys a flavor of an interesting period, but it never quite achieves the taste of grit on the tongue...
Sally is powerfully drawn to her wealthy, Tory best friend, Kitty, but the rapidly evolving situation in colonial Boston has put their families on opposite sides of the emerging struggle.
Sally’s father is a shoemaker; his standard of living contrasts sharply with that of their merchant neighbors, the Lawtons. When Sally visits there, she can let her imagination run, inventing a new life for herself that doesn’t include a harsh stepmother and endless chores. But sometimes Sally doesn’t understand that she unwittingly carries secrets that are too easily revealed. After her cousin is caught during a Sons of Liberty assault on Lawton’s warehouse and imprisoned in the British fort in the harbor, she and Kitty’s brother launch an improbable, but nonetheless suspenseful, late-night rescue attempt. Portraying the months leading up to the Boston Tea Party, this effort provides an enlightening glimpse of the conflicts that surrounded average people in an extraordinary time. The tale is related from Sally’s third-person point of view, and while her character is adequately developed—although never plumbed to its fullest depth—others receive insufficient attention to be well-rounded. At times, the historical exposition feels heavy-handed, designed more to instruct than to advance the plot.
In sum, the story conveys a flavor of an interesting period, but it never quite achieves the taste of grit on the tongue that the best Revolutionary War–era fiction offers. (Historical fiction. 10-13)Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-8028-5418-6
Page Count: 197
Publisher: Eerdmans
Review Posted Online: July 2, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2013
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic.
Chainani works an elaborate sea change akin to Gregory Maguire’s Wicked (1995), though he leaves the waters muddied.
Every four years, two children, one regarded as particularly nice and the other particularly nasty, are snatched from the village of Gavaldon by the shadowy School Master to attend the divided titular school. Those who survive to graduate become major or minor characters in fairy tales. When it happens to sweet, Disney princess–like Sophie and her friend Agatha, plain of features, sour of disposition and low of self-esteem, they are both horrified to discover that they’ve been dropped not where they expect but at Evil and at Good respectively. Gradually—too gradually, as the author strings out hundreds of pages of Hogwarts-style pranks, classroom mishaps and competitions both academic and romantic—it becomes clear that the placement wasn’t a mistake at all. Growing into their true natures amid revelations and marked physical changes, the two spark escalating rivalry between the wings of the school. This leads up to a vicious climactic fight that sees Good and Evil repeatedly switching sides. At this point, readers are likely to feel suddenly left behind, as, thanks to summary deus ex machina resolutions, everything turns out swell(ish).
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic. (Fantasy. 11-13)Pub Date: May 14, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-06-210489-2
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2013
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Problem-solving through perseverance and friendship is the real win in this deeply smart and inspiring story.
Leaving Brooklyn behind, Black math-whiz and puzzle lover Bree starts a new life in Florida, where she’ll be tossed into the deep end in more ways than one. Keeping her head above water may be the trickiest puzzle yet.
While her dad is busy working and training in IT, Bree struggles at first to settle into Enith Brigitha Middle School, largely due to the school’s preoccupation with swimming—from the accomplishments of its namesake, a Black Olympian from Curaçao, to its near victory at the state swimming championships. But Bree can’t swim. To illustrate her anxiety around this fact, the graphic novel’s bright colors give way to gray thought bubbles with thick, darkened outlines expressing Bree’s deepest fears and doubts. This poignant visual crowds some panels just as anxious feelings can crowd the thoughts of otherwise star students like Bree. Ultimately, learning to swim turns out to be easy enough with the help of a kind older neighbor—a Black woman with a competitive swimming past of her own as well as a rich and bittersweet understanding of Black Americans’ relationship with swimming—who explains to Bree how racist obstacles of the past can become collective anxiety in the present. To her surprise, Bree, with her newfound water skills, eventually finds herself on the school’s swim team, navigating competition, her anxiety, and new, meaningful relationships.
Problem-solving through perseverance and friendship is the real win in this deeply smart and inspiring story. (Graphic fiction. 10-13)Pub Date: May 17, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-06-305677-0
Page Count: 256
Publisher: HarperAlley
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2022
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