Mouse is a nice, bright 14-year-old—but not quite sure how he feels about his dad turning up after an absence of eight years to date his mom and to make a clumsy effort to be friends with him. Mouse is also interested in gifts—but not enough to threaten his long-term friendship with buddy Styx, who is as tall as Mouse is short. During an eventful Harlem summer, the two are involved in a treasure hunt: the grandfather of one of the girls in their group knows another old codger who knows a kid in Queens whose grandmother once showed him where a gangster hid his loot. There really is money hidden—not as much as they imagined, but, still, found amid some satisfactory TV publicity; more important, Mouse weathers his first romance and reaffirms his friendship with Styx. Introducing each chapter with a dozen or so lines of rap, Myers uses its musical devices to splendid advantage in Mouse's narrative. Puns, rhythms, and glancing humore enrich a text that would have intrigued James Joyce with its inspired use of sound and allusion. Meanwhile, Myers paints a memorable portrait of a good kid who still likes to confide in his mother but who is finding that he may want to keep the sex life he's about to have private—and whose adventures can be as funny (and as fundamentally innocent) as Woody Allen trying to rob a bank. A beautifully written, thoroughly entertaining caper; an impressive addition to Myers' already impressive Oeuvre.
Pub Date: April 25, 1990
ISBN: 0064403564
Page Count: 196
Publisher: Harper & Row
Review Posted Online: Oct. 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1990
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
A prototypical survival story: after an airplane crash, a 13-year-old city boy spends two months alone in the Canadian wilderness. In transit between his divorcing parents, Brian is the plane's only passenger. After casually showing him how to steer, the pilot has a heart attack and dies. In a breathtaking sequence, Brian maneuvers the plane for hours while he tries to think what to do, at last crashing as gently and levelly as he can manage into a lake. The plane sinks; all he has left is a hatchet, attached to his belt. His injuries prove painful but not fundamental. In time, he builds a shelter, experiments with berries, finds turtle eggs, starts a fire, makes a bow and arrow to catch fish and birds, and makes peace with the larger wildlife. He also battles despair and emerges more patient, prepared to learn from his mistakes—when a rogue moose attacks him and a fierce storm reminds him of his mortality, he's prepared to make repairs with philosophical persistence. His mixed feelings surprise him when the plane finally surfaces so that he can retrieve the survival pack; and then he's rescued. Plausible, taut, this is a spellbinding account. Paulsen's staccato, repetitive style conveys Brian's stress; his combination of third-person narrative with Brian's interior monologue pulls the reader into the story. Brian's angst over a terrible secret—he's seen his mother with another man—is undeveloped and doesn't contribute much, except as one item from his previous life that he sees in better perspective, as a result of his experience. High interest, not hard to read. A winner.
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1987
ISBN: 1416925082
Page Count: -
Publisher: Bradbury
Review Posted Online: Oct. 18, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1987
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