An informative coming-of-age journey.
A story of faith and courage.
Wisconsin eighth grader Anoop is bullied because of his Sikh religion; his classmates call him unspeakable names. Meanwhile, the gurudwara where the family worships is patrolled by the police; another Sikh temple in Wisconsin was attacked several years ago. Thirteen-year-old Anoop is part of a loving family, surrounded by siblings and friends, although his parents are worried about the health of Baba, his grandfather back in India. A visit to see Baba over winter break gives Anoop a feeling of “not belonging in either place / … / dangling between / India / and / America.” But as he begins to look deeply into his faith, he finds strength there and is able to assert that, despite what some people say, he is “anchored by invisible roots / that will keep me from toppling / … / No matter what happens. / No matter how they treat me.” The straightforward verse contains some bursts of sparkle but overall reads more like prose, and although a lot happens, the plot feels static. The novel contains a great deal of information about the Sikh religion. One of the most moving parts of the book is Sheth’s author’s note, in which she explains that she was raised Hindu and was sincerely moved by learning about the commitment of Sikhism’s founder, Guru Nanak Dev Ji, to equality as well as the Sikh community’s reaction to the 2012 shooting at the Oak Creek, Wisconsin, gurudwara.
An informative coming-of-age journey. (Verse fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: July 2, 2024
ISBN: 9781682636060
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Peachtree
Review Posted Online: April 20, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
However the compelling fitness of theme and event and the apt but unexpected imagery (the opening sentences compare the...
At a time when death has become an acceptable, even voguish subject in children's fiction, Natalie Babbitt comes through with a stylistic gem about living forever.
Protected Winnie, the ten-year-old heroine, is not immortal, but when she comes upon young Jesse Tuck drinking from a secret spring in her parents' woods, she finds herself involved with a family who, having innocently drunk the same water some 87 years earlier, haven't aged a moment since. Though the mood is delicate, there is no lack of action, with the Tucks (previously suspected of witchcraft) now pursued for kidnapping Winnie; Mae Tuck, the middle aged mother, striking and killing a stranger who is onto their secret and would sell the water; and Winnie taking Mae's place in prison so that the Tucks can get away before she is hanged from the neck until....? Though Babbitt makes the family a sad one, most of their reasons for discontent are circumstantial and there isn't a great deal of wisdom to be gleaned from their fate or Winnie's decision not to share it.
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1975
ISBN: 0312369816
Page Count: 164
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: April 13, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1975
Funny and endearing, though incomplete characterizations provoke questions.
An isolated class of misfits and a teacher on the edge of retirement are paired together for a year of (supposed) failure.
Zachary Kermit, a 55-year-old teacher, has been haunted for the last 27 years by a student cheating scandal that has earned him the derision of his colleagues and killed his teaching spirit. So when he is assigned to teach the Self-Contained Special Eighth-Grade Class—a dumping ground for “the Unteachables,” students with “behavior issues, learning problems, juvenile delinquents”—he is unfazed, as he is only a year away from early retirement. His relationship with his seven students—diverse in temperament, circumstance, and ability—will be one of “uncomfortable roommates” until June. But when Mr. Kermit unexpectedly stands up for a student, the kids of SCS-8 notice his sense of “justice and fairness.” Mr. Kermit finds he may even care a little about them, and they start to care back in their own way, turning a corner and bringing along a few ghosts from Mr. Kermit’s past. Writing in the alternating voices of Mr. Kermit, most of his students, and two administrators, Korman spins a narrative of redemption and belief in exceeding self-expectations. Naming conventions indicate characters of different ethnic backgrounds, but the book subscribes to a white default. The two students who do not narrate may be students of color, and their characterizations subtly—though arguably inadequately—demonstrate the danger of preconceptions.
Funny and endearing, though incomplete characterizations provoke questions. (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Jan. 8, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-06-256388-0
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Sept. 16, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2018
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