A moving, sensitive exploration of healing in the wake of loss.
Feeling independent yet deeply alone, a girl uses her deceased sister’s journal to help her move forward.
Until three years ago, Nina’s family spent their summers in Paris, a delightful tradition that included happy memories and fun times with the ebullient Aunt Renee. But ever since her older sister Lily’s death in a bike accident, Nina’s parents have retreated into themselves, leaving Nina to try to find ways to ground herself. She hopes to find some peace with what happened by completing Lily’s “13 Before 13” list prior to her own upcoming 13th birthday. Lily kissed someone and learned to bake before she died, but other items on the list remain undone, and one—“Take a selfie with the Mona Lisa”—requires her to be in Paris. Aunt Renee enrolls Nina, a white-presenting American girl, in art classes and arranges for her co-worker’s daughter Sylvie, who’s Black, to be Nina’s “nouvelle amie” and Métro guide. Nina finds her feelings for Sylvie blossoming into the possibility of more, and pursuing the tasks on Lily’s list provides a springboard for her growth. The verse format and scenes in which Nina relives moments when Lily was alive suit the depth of Nina’s feelings and her halting, uncertain progress through the aftereffects of Lily’s death. The Parisian setting is authentically developed, and the pitch-perfect ending brings the plot full circle and allows for gentle closure for a summer crush.
A moving, sensitive exploration of healing in the wake of loss. (Verse fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: March 18, 2025
ISBN: 9780063256989
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Dec. 14, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
An endearing protagonist runs the first, fast leg of Reynolds' promising relay.
Castle “Ghost” Cranshaw feels like he’s been running ever since his dad pulled that gun on him and his mom—and used it.
His dad’s been in jail three years now, but Ghost still feels the trauma, which is probably at the root of the many “altercations” he gets into at middle school. When he inserts himself into a practice for a local elite track team, the Defenders, he’s fast enough that the hard-as-nails coach decides to put him on the team. Ghost is surprised to find himself caring enough about being on the team that he curbs his behavior to avoid “altercations.” But Ma doesn’t have money to spare on things like fancy running shoes, so Ghost shoplifts a pair that make his feet feel impossibly light—and his conscience correspondingly heavy. Ghost’s narration is candid and colloquial, reminiscent of such original voices as Bud Caldwell and Joey Pigza; his level of self-understanding is both believably childlike and disarming in its perception. He is self-focused enough that secondary characters initially feel one-dimensional, Coach in particular, but as he gets to know them better, so do readers, in a way that unfolds naturally and pleasingly. His three fellow “newbies” on the Defenders await their turns to star in subsequent series outings. Characters are black by default; those few white people in Ghost’s world are described as such.
An endearing protagonist runs the first, fast leg of Reynolds' promising relay. (Fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Aug. 30, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4814-5015-7
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Caitlyn Dlouhy/Atheneum
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PROFILES
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
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