Daydreaming Cody LeBeau from the Abenaki tribe naively imagines he needs ninja moves to be a hero, confident and popular. This disconnect is momentary, as bullies in his new junior high school push him around all day. Initially, he’s an unconvincing character whose old-fashioned vocabulary and adult point of view don’t fit a teen in the 21st century; many of his thoughts sound like a mother’s. The first four chapters meander through Cody’s nightmarish new school experience, until Uncle John appears and exemplifies a hero’s path. Uncle, in town to fight in a prestigious competition, teaches Cody “The Way,” a Native-American tradition of integrity and strength that empowers the mind and body. The slow start gets some impetus and then moves into high gear when Cody’s new spiritual insight helps him to maintain his internal and physical balance and compels him humbly, yet with all his heart and strength, to diffuse a mass killing. This feat is what he imagines in the beginning, minus the foot-kicking and fist-punching. This subject needs a modern edge that is lacking in text that uses the “fresh as the proverbial daisy” metaphor and other clichéd phrasing. Not one of Bruchac’s better efforts. (Fiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2007
ISBN: 978-1-58196-062-4
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Darby Creek
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2007
On equal footing with a garden-variety potato.
The new kid in school endures becoming the school mascot.
Ben Hardy has never cared for potatoes, and this distaste has become a barrier to adjusting to life in his new Idaho town. His school’s mascot is the Spud, and after a series of misfortunes, Ben is enlisted to don the potato costume and cheer on his school’s team. Ben balances his duties as a life-sized potato against his desperate desire to hide the fact that he’s the dork in the suit. After all, his cute new crush, Jayla, wouldn’t be too impressed to discover Ben’s secret. The ensuing novel is a fairly boilerplate middle–grade narrative: snarky tween protagonist, the crush that isn’t quite what she seems, and a pair of best friends that have more going on than our hero initially believes. The author keeps the novel moving quickly, pushing forward with witty asides and narrative momentum so fast that readers won’t really mind that the plot’s spine is one they’ve encountered many times before. Once finished, readers will feel little resonance and move on to the next book in their to-read piles, but in the moment the novel is pleasant enough. Ben, Jayla, and Ben’s friend Hunter are white while Ellie, Ben’s other good pal, is Latina.
On equal footing with a garden-variety potato. (Fiction. 10-12)Pub Date: March 24, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-11866-5
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Nov. 23, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
A solid debut: fluent, funny and eminently sequel-worthy.
Inventively tweaking a popular premise, Jensen pits two Incredibles-style families with superpowers against each other—until a new challenge rises to unite them.
The Johnsons invariably spit at the mere mention of their hated rivals, the Baileys. Likewise, all Baileys habitually shake their fists when referring to the Johnsons. Having long looked forward to getting a superpower so that he too can battle his clan’s nemeses, Rafter Bailey is devastated when, instead of being able to fly or something else cool, he acquires the “power” to strike a match on soft polyester. But when hated classmate Juanita Johnson turns up newly endowed with a similarly bogus power and, against all family tradition, they compare notes, it becomes clear that something fishy is going on. Both families regard themselves as the heroes and their rivals as the villains. Someone has been inciting them to fight each other. Worse yet, that someone has apparently developed a device that turns real superpowers into silly ones. Teaching themselves on the fly how to get past their prejudice and work together, Rafter, his little brother, Benny, and Juanita follow a well-laid-out chain of clues and deductions to the climactic discovery of a third, genuinely nefarious family, the Joneses, and a fiendishly clever scheme to dispose of all the Baileys and Johnsons at once. Can they carry the day?
A solid debut: fluent, funny and eminently sequel-worthy. (Adventure. 10-12)Pub Date: Jan. 21, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-06-220961-0
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Nov. 1, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
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