A story that starts out like any other about playground quarrels, but briskly moves into some gratifying intricacies about the nature of fighting and winning. Sarah’s family has just moved to Maryland from Maine; as the result of a misunderstanding, fifth-grader Sarah accidentally makes an enemy of Eric, a local jerk who seems dedicated to making her life miserable once school starts. Sarah is tough and feisty, and can give as good as she gets, but her efforts at revenge inspire Eric and alienate her friends, teachers, and family. It is finally Jerod, Sarah’s 15-year-old brother, who helps her see what she must do, while concealing his wisdom behind delightfully rendered versions of teenage grunts: “Eup,” “Watchupto?” and “Kive suma dat?” Sarah has a hard, Zen-like lesson to learn; her new friends are more important than her enemies, and the only way to get rid of Eric is to absorb his abuse without responding until he gets bored. Carbone keeps this realistic by not going too easily on her heroine; Eric doesn’t get bored right away, so Sarah withstands a lot of misery before she attains her goal. It doesn’t hurt that Eric finds someone else to fight with, giving Sarah insight as to why the other children were egging her on: It’s stimulating to watch the antics of adversaries. Shrewdly, with sharp characterizations, Carbone delivers a difficult lesson in an exciting tale. (Fiction. 8-12)
Pub Date: June 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-679-88639-7
Page Count: 104
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1998
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Though it lacks nuance, still a must-read.
Tyler is the son of generations of Vermont dairy farmers.
Mari is the Mexican-born daughter of undocumented migrant laborers whose mother has vanished in a perilous border crossing. When Tyler’s father is disabled in an accident, the only way the family can afford to keep the farm is by hiring Mari’s family. As Tyler and Mari’s friendship grows, the normal tensions of middle-school boy-girl friendships are complicated by philosophical and political truths. Tyler wonders how he can be a patriot while his family breaks the law. Mari worries about her vanished mother and lives in fear that she will be separated from her American-born sisters if la migra comes. Unashamedly didactic, Alvarez’s novel effectively complicates simple equivalencies between what’s illegal and what’s wrong. Mari’s experience is harrowing, with implied atrocities and immigration raids, but equally full of good people doing the best they can. The two children find hope despite the unhappily realistic conclusions to their troubles, in a story which sees the best in humanity alongside grim realities.
Though it lacks nuance, still a must-read. (Fiction. 9-11)Pub Date: Jan. 13, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-375-85838-3
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2008
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
With young readers diagnosed with anxiety in ever increasing numbers, this book offers a necessary mirror to many.
Young Raina is 9 when she throws up for the first time that she remembers, due to a stomach bug. Even a year later, when she is in fifth grade, she fears getting sick.
Raina begins having regular stomachaches that keep her home from school. She worries about sharing food with her friends and eating certain kinds of foods, afraid of getting sick or food poisoning. Raina’s mother enrolls her in therapy. At first Raina isn’t sure about seeing a therapist, but over time she develops healthy coping mechanisms to deal with her stress and anxiety. Her therapist helps her learn to ground herself and relax, and in turn she teaches her classmates for a school project. Amping up the green, wavy lines to evoke Raina’s nausea, Telgemeier brilliantly produces extremely accurate visual representations of stress and anxiety. Thought bubbles surround Raina in some panels, crowding her with anxious “what if”s, while in others her negative self-talk appears to be literally crushing her. Even as she copes with anxiety disorder and what is eventually diagnosed as mild irritable bowel syndrome, she experiences the typical stresses of school life, going from cheer to panic in the blink of an eye. Raina is white, and her classmates are diverse; one best friend is Korean American.
With young readers diagnosed with anxiety in ever increasing numbers, this book offers a necessary mirror to many. (Graphic memoir. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 17, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-545-85251-7
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Graphix/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 11, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2019
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