A grand journey measured in both physical and emotional distance.
Mari is lost.
Her mother has died suddenly, but before she even breaks the news to her 9-year-old brother, Conor, who is on the autism spectrum, she knows they have to get out of there. Mari was in the foster care system before being adopted; her adoptive mother gave birth to Conor, and their dad later left the family. With this history and no one else to turn to, Mari refuses to get thrown back into the system, much less allow Conor to be separated from her. So, she takes her mother’s car and their camping gear, and they leave Los Angeles for their grandmother’s house in Massachusetts even though they haven’t spoken in three years and Mari doesn’t have a license (she’s 15). It’s 2017, and she persuades Conor, an astronomy buff, to comply by promising they will stop in Missouri to see the much-hyped upcoming solar eclipse. During their cross-country trip, they also visit state and national parks, eat a lot of chips, briefly pick up a hitchhiker, grieve, and meet with some genuine kindness. This road-trip story is introspective and revealing, much like the desert highway in the middle of the night. Mari’s perspective is transparent and fragile, completely realistic to her circumstances. Her attitude toward Conor, while fundamentally loving, is not perfect, but it feels honest for a teen sibling in her position. Main characters read as White.
A grand journey measured in both physical and emotional distance. (Fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-68263-247-5
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Peachtree
Review Posted Online: May 31, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
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Riveting, inspiring, and sometimes hilarious.
If you made a recording to be heard by the aliens who found the iPod, what would you record?
For 11-year-old Alex Petroski, it's easy. He records everything. He records the story of how he travels to New Mexico to a rocket festival with his dog, Carl Sagan, and his rocket. He records finding out that a man with the same name and birthday as his dead father has an address in Las Vegas. He records eating at Johnny Rockets for the first time with his new friends, who are giving him a ride to find his dead father (who might not be dead!), and losing Carl Sagan in the wilds of Las Vegas, and discovering he has a half sister. He even records his own awful accident. Cheng delivers a sweet, soulful debut novel with a brilliant, refreshing structure. His characters manage to come alive through the “transcript” of Alex’s iPod recording, an odd medium that sounds like it would be confusing but really works. Taking inspiration from the Voyager Golden Record released to space in 1977, Alex, who explains he has “light brown skin,” records all the important moments of a journey that takes him from a family of two to a family of plenty.
Riveting, inspiring, and sometimes hilarious. (Fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Feb. 28, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-399-18637-0
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 18, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
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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