A heartwarming journey.
A young immigrant from Uganda struggles to find his place in Canada.
Patrick “Ace” Katumba isn’t sure how to fit in with his new grade eight classmates in Toronto. Back home in Kampala, Ace had good friends, like soccer teammates Rodney and Ronan, to help him keep up his spirits, especially after his father passed away from cancer. Without those two by his side, school is much harder. There’s a popular boy, Jamie, who isn’t always friendly and makes ignorant, taunting statements about Africa, but he might be the key to Ace’s blending in, just like in the American movies he’s seen. Potential friends Dwayne, Lutti, and Ericksen warn Ace about Jamie, but Ace doubts that the popular kid could be that bad. Meanwhile, his mother and older sister, Olive, worry that Ace focuses too much on socializing rather than studying. With pressures mounting at home and at school, Ace worries that he’ll never be good enough for anyone. Kawooya’s debut novel flows smoothly and is full of charming personalities. The banter between Rodney and Ronan mirrors the playful teasing between Dwayne and Lutti. Many different characters among the multiracial cast offer Ace bits of wisdom that he benefits from. Although his mother sometimes seems like a one-note character, her story adds depth and realism that reflect the plight of many immigrants today.
A heartwarming journey. (author’s note) (Fiction. 12-15)Pub Date: today
ISBN: 9781459417519
Page Count: 160
Publisher: James Lorimer
Review Posted Online: Feb. 17, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2024
Though it lacks references or suggestions for further reading, Arn's agonizing story is compelling enough that many readers...
A harrowing tale of survival in the Killing Fields.
The childhood of Arn Chorn-Pond has been captured for young readers before, in Michelle Lord and Shino Arihara's picture book, A Song for Cambodia (2008). McCormick, known for issue-oriented realism, offers a fictionalized retelling of Chorn-Pond's youth for older readers. McCormick's version begins when the Khmer Rouge marches into 11-year-old Arn's Cambodian neighborhood and forces everyone into the country. Arn doesn't understand what the Khmer Rouge stands for; he only knows that over the next several years he and the other children shrink away on a handful of rice a day, while the corpses of adults pile ever higher in the mango grove. Arn does what he must to survive—and, wherever possible, to protect a small pocket of children and adults around him. Arn's chilling history pulls no punches, trusting its readers to cope with the reality of children forced to participate in murder, torture, sexual exploitation and genocide. This gut-wrenching tale is marred only by the author's choice to use broken English for both dialogue and description. Chorn-Pond, in real life, has spoken eloquently (and fluently) on the influence he's gained by learning English; this prose diminishes both his struggle and his story.
Though it lacks references or suggestions for further reading, Arn's agonizing story is compelling enough that many readers will seek out the history themselves. (preface, author's note) (Historical fiction. 12-15)Pub Date: May 8, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-06-173093-1
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: March 20, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2012
Despite the stale fat-to-curvy pattern, compelling world building with a Southern European, pseudo-Christian feel,...
Adventure drags our heroine all over the map of fantasyland while giving her the opportunity to use her smarts.
Elisa—Princess Lucero-Elisa de Riqueza of Orovalle—has been chosen for Service since the day she was born, when a beam of holy light put a Godstone in her navel. She's a devout reader of holy books and is well-versed in the military strategy text Belleza Guerra, but she has been kept in ignorance of world affairs. With no warning, this fat, self-loathing princess is married off to a distant king and is embroiled in political and spiritual intrigue. War is coming, and perhaps only Elisa's Godstone—and knowledge from the Belleza Guerra—can save them. Elisa uses her untried strategic knowledge to always-good effect. With a character so smart that she doesn't have much to learn, body size is stereotypically substituted for character development. Elisa’s "mountainous" body shrivels away when she spends a month on forced march eating rat, and thus she is a better person. Still, it's wonderfully refreshing to see a heroine using her brain to win a war rather than strapping on a sword and charging into battle.
Despite the stale fat-to-curvy pattern, compelling world building with a Southern European, pseudo-Christian feel, reminiscent of Naomi Kritzer's Fires of the Faithful (2002), keeps this entry fresh. (Fantasy. 12-14)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-06-202648-4
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2011
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