A well-written and engaging tale of a new friendship featuring a compelling cast.
Two tweens form a rewarding friendship while riding the bus together.
In this middle-grade novel, Gilah meets Guillermo when the bus she is riding hits the boy and his bike and she is the only one who notices. With his bike out of commission, Guillermo starts riding the bus to school, and their initial connection gradually warms into a friendship and a growth opportunity for both of them. Gilah is an avid break dancer who is practicing a special piece to perform at her upcoming bat mitzvah, along with her Torah portion. She is also preparing a speech that will allow her to express herself without breaking the rules of communication she has struggled to learn. Guillermo is a poet, slowly building up the nerve to share his verse with others—even if he first does so by writing a poem instead of completing his math assignment—and finding a place for himself after his family’s move to Washington, D.C. In chapters that alternate between the two characters’ narration—Gilah’s story is in prose, while Guillermo’s account is in verse—they pursue their own goals and offer different perspectives on their shared experiences. Gilah invites Guillermo to her bat mitzvah, where a misunderstanding robs her of the opportunity to present the dance she had planned. But she is able to perform the work later on her own terms and shows up to celebrate Guillermo at his first poetry reading.
Ehrenberg and debut author López have brought the two characters’ interior and exterior lives into vivid relief. Gilah’s narration is filled with elegant metaphors that are never overdone, like her comparison of the Torah’s omitted vowels to the way her mind works differently: “I think that proves that ‘harder to read’ does not equal ‘broken.’ ” Gilah is on the autism spectrum, which will be obvious to readers from the opening pages. This condition goes largely unmentioned in the narrative, instead serving as a textbook example of show, don’t tell. Readers get an intimate portrayal of how hard she works to exist in a neurotypical world and how much easier she finds it when those who love her adjust their own behaviors to meet her needs. The poetic forms of Guillermo’s sections—occasionally in rhyme, more often free verse and, in one case, an acrostic—are necessarily sparer than Gilah’s detailed prose but serve equally well to bring readers into his mind. Guillermo is developing independence while remaining connected to his close-knit clan, discovering the confidence to share his work with the public, and defining his own role at his family’s bakery and in his new community. An abundance of local details brings the book’s Washington setting to life. The strong secondary characters, including Gilah’s gymnast younger sister, Miri; her Hebrew tutor, Josh; and Guillermo’s math teacher, Mr. Whitaker, are multilayered and fully realized. Themes of Judaism, identity, self-determination, and family are seamlessly woven into the story, making for a solidly plotted and well-paced novel with emotional resonance throughout.
A well-written and engaging tale of a new friendship featuring a compelling cast.Pub Date: March 1, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-73655-735-8
Page Count: 352
Publisher: PJ Publishing
Review Posted Online: April 6, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
A high-concept premise that falls short in its execution.
A teenage girl finds herself alone after everyone else in her town mysteriously disappears, leaving her scrambling to figure out how to find them all.
One late summer day, everybody in July Fielding’s town disappears. She is left to piece together what happened, following a series of cryptic signs she finds around town urging her to “GET THEM BACK.” The narrative moves back and forth between July’s present and the events of the summer before, when her relationship with her best friend, cross-country team co-captain Sydney, starts to fracture due to a combination of jealousy over July’s new relationship with a cute boy called Sam and sweet up-and-coming freshman Ella’s threatening to overtake Syd’s status as star of the track team. The team members participate in a ritual in which they jump off a cliff into the rocky waters below at the end of their Friday practice runs. Though Ella is reluctant, Syd pressures her to jump. Short, frenetically paced sections move the story along quickly, and there is much foreshadowing pointing to something terrible that occurred at the end of that summer, which may be the key to July’s current predicament, but there is much misdirection too. Ultimately this is a story without enough setup to make the turn the book takes in the end feel fully developed or earned. All characters read white.
A high-concept premise that falls short in its execution. (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: Sept. 19, 2023
ISBN: 9780593327173
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2023
A poignant and romantic coming-of-age tale.
The boy she believed was the fated love of her life dies; now a 17-year-old girl must find a new future—and a new version of herself.
After the death of her boyfriend, Beck, and her military family’s latest move, Amelia Graham tries for a fresh start. On her first day at her new school, she nearly hits fellow senior Paloma with her car but ultimately finds a new friend in her. After months of being depressed and alone, Lia realizes she’s living again. And then there’s the boy. Although she feels an immediate connection, Lia stays away from him, trying to honor her love for Beck. But Isaiah is there when Lia needs support, and she’s increasingly drawn to him. As the past recedes, Lia realizes that who she was with Beck wasn’t all she’ll ever be. Told through Lia’s first-person point of view and moving between past and present, this story covers heartbreak, healing, and learning to live when the person you lived for is gone. Upperman’s writing is engaging, and although the emotions are heavy, an undercurrent of hope snakes through the narrative, growing brighter as Lia comes back to life and begins to see that the future holds multiple possibilities. Central characters present white; Paloma is cued Latine.
A poignant and romantic coming-of-age tale. (A Geographical History of Amelia Graham) (Romance. 14-18)Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2025
ISBN: 9781464217784
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2024
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