Destined for the spotlight.
A 13-year-old queer girl dreams of being a musician in this coming-of-age story.
Cline Louise Alden, who was named after Patsy Cline, lives in Paris, Kentucky, with her waitress Mama, who believes in practicality, and Gram, who encourages her love of music, particularly older songs from women country singers. When Cline learns of an upcoming singer/songwriter workshop in Lexington, she’s determined to go even if she has to keep it a secret from Mama and find a way to come up with the $300 fee. The workshop is both inspiring and intimidating, while Sylvie, Cline’s assigned partner who prefers rock music, gives Cline all sorts of nervous and excited feelings. The story skillfully tackles varying Christian beliefs about sexuality, Gram’s Alzheimer’s, the family’s financial struggles, and shifting friendships. While the plot is propelled by Cline’s musical journey, it’s the captivating character of Cline herself that makes the book shine, although many secondary characters are notable in their own rights. Cline’s confident, candid, and immensely endearing narrative forms the heartbeat of the book as she learns to be both vulnerable and strong. Readers with passion and big dreams will be able to relate. It’s refreshing that Cline has no internal struggle about her sexuality; her concerns are about how and when to share her identity with others. Cline is White; Sylvie’s mom is from Mexico and her father is White and American, and side characters bring additional diversity to the story.
Destined for the spotlight. (Fiction. 9-13)Pub Date: Nov. 9, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-06-305999-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2021
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
Charming, poignant, and thoughtfully woven.
An aspiring scientist and a budding artist become friends and help each other with dream projects.
Unfolding in mid-1980s Sacramento, California, this story stars 12-year-olds Rosalind and Benjamin as first-person narrators in alternating chapters. Ro’s father, a fellow space buff, was killed by a drunk driver; the rocket they were working on together lies unfinished in her closet. As for Benji, not only has his best friend, Amir, moved away, but the comic book holding the clue for locating his dad is also missing. Along with their profound personal losses, the protagonists share a fixation with the universe’s intriguing potential: Ro decides to complete the rocket and hopes to launch mementos of her father into outer space while Benji’s conviction that aliens and UFOs are real compels his imagination and creativity as an artist. An accident in science class triggers a chain of events forcing Benji and Ro, who is new to the school, to interact and unintentionally learn each other’s secrets. They resolve to find Benji’s dad—a famous comic-book artist—and partner to finish Ro’s rocket for the science fair. Together, they overcome technical, scheduling, and geographical challenges. Readers will be drawn in by amusing and fantastical elements in the comic book theme, high emotional stakes that arouse sympathy, and well-drawn character development as the protagonists navigate life lessons around grief, patience, self-advocacy, and standing up for others. Ro is biracial (Chinese/White); Benji is White.
Charming, poignant, and thoughtfully woven. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Jan. 12, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-06-300888-5
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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