Flora (Floss) Barnes shuttles back and forth between Dad and Mum, Steve and half-brother Tiger. When her stepfather’s job requires moving to Australia for six months, Floss makes the agonizing decision to stay behind with her father who is in serious debt with his failing café business and on the verge of becoming homeless. Suddenly, Floss’s life changes dramatically with newfound worries and fears offset by everlasting hope her father will succeed and build a new life for them. Floss’s normal school and tween friendship conflicts are complicated by an adult lifestyle that is less than suitable for a suburban middle-class child. Added to her stress is the guilt Floss feels keeping Mum in the dark and her stoic resolve to stay with Dad for moral support. British author Wilson portrays heavy issues of poverty, bankruptcy, drunken/bawdy adult behavior, bullying and unconditional parental/child love through a determined protagonist and a group of believable secondary characters—though they’re somewhat melodramatic in their thoughts and actions. Chapters foreshadow with a one-page black-and-white set of graphic novel–style scenes. Will provoke readers’ questions and speculation on the open-ended conclusion, and mother/daughter discussion possibilities are encouraged with the appended reading guide. British idioms outlined in “Floss’s Glossary.” (Fiction. 10-14)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2007
ISBN: 978-1-59643-241-3
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Deborah Brodie/Roaring Brook
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2007
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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