Charming repartee and plenty of heart make for a delightful debut.
What better way to prove to your parents that you can be a regular teenager than to enroll in Shakespeare camp?
Sixteen-year-old math genius Beatrice Quinn has been home-schooled her entire life, avoiding socializing and studying hard to secure her dream of attending the University of Oxford. When she confesses to her parents—sex therapists who share a practice—that she not only applied to Oxford, but was accepted to attend in the fall, they worry she is not prepared to move to another country by herself. Agreeing to do whatever it takes to convince them she’s ready, the White Berkeley teen agrees to spend her summer at the Connecticut Shakespearean Summer Academy with a parentally assigned list of so-called normal teenage experiences she must check off, including making a friend, engaging in small talk, hugging people, doing something outdoorsy, and pulling a prank. But no amount of research can prepare socially anxious Bea for the reality of theater camp, where she faces firsts like acting on stage, attending secret parties, and partaking in a Shakespeare-off. The cast members, varied in race and sexual orientation, may at first seem to conform to familiar types, but the characters are redeemed by backstories revealing their depths. Anyone who has also hardened their shell to protect their heart will be moved by Bea’s growth in self-love as she sincerely navigates friendship and romance.
Charming repartee and plenty of heart make for a delightful debut. (Fiction. 12-18)Pub Date: July 26, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-250-81841-6
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Review Posted Online: April 26, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2022
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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