Heartfelt but inconsistent.
Eliza Marino’s family, lifelong residents of New Jersey’s Long Beach Island, lost nearly everything in a devastating hurricane.
Five years later, she and her friends are on a mission to preserve their coastal marshland as a habitat for turtles and other wildlife. A lifeguard and talented surfer, Eliza, 17, remains traumatized by the storm that nearly killed her little brother. She and her friends resent the seasonal residents whose oceanfront mansions replaced the modest homes that were destroyed. Ensuring the marshland is preserved is challenging, however. Spontaneously venting their frustration, the teens vandalize a giant home under construction. For Eliza, teaching Milo Harris, a handsome, wealthy, vacationing New Yorker, to surf proves a happy distraction. However, each keeps secrets that threaten their fledgling romance. Despite one character’s referencing Indigenous activists, the text does not consider the Indigenous people displaced by the islanders’ ancestors. Eliza’s dad works in construction, and the cafe her mom co-owns depends on tourists. Such conflicts, though depicted, aren’t explored in depth and are primarily framed in an interpersonal context. The novel’s strengths are Eliza’s compelling voice—her hurricane flashbacks are mesmerizing—and the conveying of emotion; it only lightly explores the theme of youth climate change activism and issues connected to it. Most characters read as White; several secondary characters are Latinx, and one is nonbinary.
Heartfelt but inconsistent. (author’s note, resources) (Verse novel. 12-18)Pub Date: July 19, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-5476-0916-1
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: April 26, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2022
This astonishing book will generate much-needed discussion.
After 15-year-old Will sees his older brother, Shawn, gunned down on the streets, he sets out to do the expected: the rules dictate no crying, no snitching, and revenge.
Though the African-American teen has never held one, Will leaves his apartment with his brother’s gun tucked in his waistband. As he travels down on the elevator, the door opens on certain floors, and Will is confronted with a different figure from his past, each a victim of gun violence, each important in his life. They also force Will to face the questions he has about his plan. As each “ghost” speaks, Will realizes how much of his own story has been unknown to him and how intricately woven they are. Told in free-verse poems, this is a raw, powerful, and emotional depiction of urban violence. The structure of the novel heightens the tension, as each stop of the elevator brings a new challenge until the narrative arrives at its taut, ambiguous ending. There is considerable symbolism, including the 15 bullets in the gun and the way the elevator rules parallel street rules. Reynolds masterfully weaves in textured glimpses of the supporting characters. Throughout, readers get a vivid picture of Will and the people in his life, all trying to cope with the circumstances of their environment while expressing the love, uncertainty, and hope that all humans share.
This astonishing book will generate much-needed discussion. (Verse fiction. 12-adult)Pub Date: Oct. 17, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4814-3825-4
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Caitlyn Dlouhy/Atheneum
Review Posted Online: July 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Movingly unravels themes of belonging, Islamophobia, and the interlocking oppressions thrust upon immigrant women.
What happens when both the place you come from and the place you are feel distant and unaccepting?
These are the questions Nima sets out to answer. A 14-year-old, working-class, Muslim, immigrant kid raised by a single mother in suburban America—that’s Nima. They left their unnamed homeland (contextual clues point to Sudan) in pursuit of a better life, one that didn’t seem to find them. But Nima’s mind often wanders back to her roots, to the Arabic songs she listens to on cassette and old photographs of her parents—things she longs to be a part of. At school, Nima is bullied for her accented English, her obvious poverty, and her mother’s hijab. Haitham, the neighbor boy who’s more like a sibling, goes to the same school and is Nima’s only friend. But one day Haitham is beaten up in a hate crime, winding up in the hospital hooked up to machines. The abyss between Nima and her mother begins to grow as Nima learns more about her father’s absence. Elhillo’s novel, which contains light fantastical elements, tells the story of a Muslim girl traversing post–9/11 America with the baggage of a past she does not yet fully understand. The vivid imagery creates a profound sensory experience, evoking intense emotions in a story that will resonate with readers from many backgrounds.
Movingly unravels themes of belonging, Islamophobia, and the interlocking oppressions thrust upon immigrant women. (Verse novel. 12-18)Pub Date: March 2, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-17705-1
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Make Me a World
Review Posted Online: Dec. 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
PERSPECTIVES
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