A cute romance that explores valuable themes around self-esteem.
A teen devises a plan to make her crush fall for her.
Ever since that fateful first day of freshman year, Indian American Payal Mehta has been enamored with blond-haired, blue-eyed classmate Jon Slate. Fast-forward three years: Payal encounters Jon at a party, and after she bravely suggests they hang out, Jon vomits on her shoes. Later, when Payal is injured at school, squeamish Jon vomits again (fortunately near, but not on, her). When he buys her lunch as an apology, Payal is sure their love story is just beginning. They seem to be hitting it off over Taco Bell until Jon, who’s white, says things that make it clear that her being a brown girl rules out any romantic possibilities. Her best friends, Neil Patel and Divya Bhatt, and even her prickly school rival, Korean American Philip Kim, advise Payal to move on. But, still hung up on Jon’s description of her as “funny and cute,” Payal convinces herself that she can make him fall for her. She promises to let Philip take full credit for their psych project if he helps her, overriding his initial criticism of what he dubs “Operation End Racism With Love.” Payal’s naïveté is comically delusional, but her determination to make herself appealing to Jon offers insights into how people can suppress parts of who they are in order to feel accepted, as well as the importance of being genuinely embraced.
A cute romance that explores valuable themes around self-esteem. (Romance. 13-18)Pub Date: Sept. 24, 2024
ISBN: 9780593461884
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Kokila
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
There’s not much plot here, but readers will relish the opportunity to climb inside Autumn’s head.
The finely drawn characters capture readers’ attention in this debut.
Autumn and Phineas, nicknamed Finny, were born a week apart; their mothers are still best friends. Growing up, Autumn and Finny were like peas in a pod despite their differences: Autumn is “quirky and odd,” while Finny is “sweet and shy and everyone like[s] him.” But in eighth grade, Autumn and Finny stop being friends due to an unexpected kiss. They drift apart and find new friends, but their friendship keeps asserting itself at parties, shared holiday gatherings and random encounters. In the summer after graduation, Autumn and Finny reconnect and are finally ready to be more than friends. But on August 8, everything changes, and Autumn has to rely on all her strength to move on. Autumn’s coming-of-age is sensitively chronicled, with a wide range of experiences and events shaping her character. Even secondary characters are well-rounded, with their own histories and motivations.
There’s not much plot here, but readers will relish the opportunity to climb inside Autumn’s head. (Fiction. 14 & up)Pub Date: April 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4022-7782-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
An ode to the children of migrants who have been taken away.
A Mexican American boy takes on heavy responsibilities when his family is torn apart.
Mateo’s life is turned upside down the day U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents show up unsuccessfully seeking his Pa at his New York City bodega. The Garcias live in fear until the day both parents are picked up; his Pa is taken to jail and his Ma to a detention center. The adults around Mateo offer support to him and his 7-year-old sister, Sophie, however, he knows he is now responsible for caring for her and the bodega as well as trying to survive junior year—that is, if he wants to fulfill his dream to enter the drama program at the Tisch School of the Arts and become an actor. Mateo’s relationships with his friends Kimmie and Adam (a potential love interest) also suffer repercussions as he keeps his situation a secret. Kimmie is half Korean (her other half is unspecified) and Adam is Italian American; Mateo feels disconnected from them, less American, and with worries they can’t understand. He talks himself out of choosing a safer course of action, a decision that deepens the story. Mateo’s self-awareness and inner monologue at times make him seem older than 16, and, with significant turmoil in the main plot, some side elements feel underdeveloped. Aleman’s narrative joins the ranks of heart-wrenching stories of migrant families who have been separated.
An ode to the children of migrants who have been taken away. (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: May 4, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-7595-5605-8
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 22, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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