A delightful, nostalgic tribute to innocent fandom.
A seventh grader fixates on a Bieber-esque heartthrob in this middle-grade novel.
Millicent “Millie” Jackson loves 15-year-old Rory Calhoun with all her 12-year-old heart. So what if she’s never met him and millions of others feel the same way? Rory’s beautiful honey-blond hair, freckles, and golden voice have captivated Millie, and when Rory announces he’s going on tour, Millie knows she has a shot at finding love. When she’s not navigating the halls of Susan B. Anthony Middle School near Minneapolis and enduring dinners with her family—including sassy Grandma Cheryl and precocious 5-year-old brother Billy—Millie pens earnest letters to him, her very own “worldwide crush,” and fixates on Bodega Bay, California, Rory’s sleepy beach hometown. When Millie’s mother is able to procure concert tickets, the show is canceled at the last minute due to a family emergency involving Rory’s beloved mother, much to the heartbreak of Millie and Rory’s legions of fans. Will Millie ever cross paths with Rory Calhoun? Nilsen was inspired to write the novel based on her own childhood crushes—Shaun Cassidy, Davy Jones, and the Bee Gees—and after witnessing the more recent pop-star phenomenon of Justin Bieber. The author’s prose style is perfect for middle-grade readers—fast-paced and natural, with the accuracy of the high highs and low lows that come with the emotions of a seventh grader experiencing her very first crush. Millie’s narrative voice is as bubbly and sweet as Rory Calhoun’s song lyrics. She’s a typical tween girl who’s embarrassed by her family but loves them anyway and is consumed by a distant love that feels as real as the romantic relationships she’ll eventually have as an adult. Even Rory, who makes an appearance later in the book, feels like a real teenager, albeit one who’s experiencing global stardom.
A delightful, nostalgic tribute to innocent fandom.Pub Date: July 11, 2023
ISBN: 9781684631926
Page Count: 272
Publisher: SparkPress
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Fast-paced and plot-driven.
In his latest, prolific author Gratz takes on Hitler’s Olympic Games.
When 13-year-old American gymnast Evie Harris arrives in Berlin to compete in the 1936 Olympic Games, she has one goal: stardom. If she can bring home a gold medal like her friend, the famous equestrian-turned-Hollywood-star Mary Brooks, she might be able to lift her family out of their Dust Bowl poverty. But someone slips a strange note under Evie’s door, and soon she’s dodging Heinz Fischer, the Hitler Youth member assigned to host her, and meeting strangers who want to make use of her gymnastic skills—to rob a bank. As the games progress, Evie begins to see the moral issues behind their sparkling facade—the antisemitism and racism inherent in Nazi ideology and the way Hitler is using the competition to support and promote these beliefs. And she also agrees to rob the bank. Gratz goes big on the Mission Impossible–style heist, which takes center stage over the actual competitions, other than Jesse Owens’ famous long jump. A lengthy and detailed author’s note provides valuable historical context, including places where Gratz adapted the facts for storytelling purposes (although there’s no mention of the fact that before 1952, Olympic equestrian sports were limited to male military officers). With an emphasis on the plot, many of the characters feel defined primarily by how they’re suffering under the Nazis, such as the fictional diver Ursula Diop, who was involuntarily sterilized for being biracial.
Fast-paced and plot-driven. (Historical fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9781338736106
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2025
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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