Overall, there are some pleasures, but this is time travel lite.
A 12-year-old in 1987 time travels a half-century into the past and meets her own grandmother at the same age.
Annie Jaffin and her mom visit Annie’s grandmother, a woman she barely knows. The dying older woman still resides in the once-grand hotel her family owned and where she and her daughter, Annie’s mom, grew up. The reunion is grim: Her bitter, angry grandmother hurls recriminations at the two. That night, Annie dons a sleep mask, her world goes dark, and…next morning, she’s shocked to awaken in the hotel room of a girl called Molly who gradually reveals that it’s 50 years earlier—and that her given name is Mary Moran: Annie’s grandmother’s name. Annie wisely keeps the relationship a secret. Molly, kept almost completely sequestered for health reasons, relishes this new “friend’s” company, and the pair embark on a series of whirlwind adventures beyond the hotel’s environs. The novel’s premise is tantalizing, but its execution lacks true spark. The girls are likable, but characterizations are superficial; certain plot details are confusing; the Great Depression barely registers; and readers may wonder why neither girl is more curious about each other’s time and lifestyle than she is. Youngsters may also wonder how the vivacious though depressed and lonely young Molly grew up to be such a tartar; they will see that some circumstances in her childhood seem to have changed so as to presage a happier future. A surprise at the end disappoints and doesn’t resolve matters.
Overall, there are some pleasures, but this is time travel lite. (author’s note) (Fantasy. 9-12)Pub Date: Jan. 28, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-375-86917-4
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Oct. 22, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
Entrancing and uplifting.
A small dog, the elderly woman who owns him, and a homeless girl come together to create a tale of serendipity.
Piper, almost 12, her parents, and her younger brother are at the bottom of a long slide toward homelessness. Finally in a family shelter, Piper finds that her newfound safety gives her the opportunity to reach out to someone who needs help even more. Jewel, mentally ill, lives in the park with her dog, Baby. Unwilling to leave her pet, and forbidden to enter the shelter with him, she struggles with the winter weather. Ree, also homeless and with a large dog, helps when she can, but after Jewel gets sick and is hospitalized, Baby’s taken to the animal shelter, and Ree can’t manage the complex issues alone. It’s Piper, using her best investigative skills, who figures out Jewel’s backstory. Still, she needs all the help of the shelter Firefly Girls troop that she joins to achieve her accomplishment: to raise enough money to provide Jewel and Baby with a secure, hopeful future and, maybe, with their kindness, to inspire a happier story for Ree. Told in the authentic alternating voices of loving child and loyal dog, this tale could easily slump into a syrupy melodrama, but Pyron lets her well-drawn characters earn their believable happy ending, step by challenging step, by reaching out and working together. Piper, her family, and Jewel present white; Pyron uses hair and naming convention, respectively, to cue Ree as black and Piper’s friend Gabriela as Latinx.
Entrancing and uplifting. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Aug. 13, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-06-283922-0
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: April 9, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2019
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