A fun-filled romp grounded in love, family, and plenty of mud.
A boy seeks himself within a family of big personalities.
Ever since he broke his wrist, 11-year-old Korean Canadian Evan Park has been able to avoid his overbearing father’s questions about returning to team sports. Evan’s headstrong older sister, Lydia, has her gymnastics trophies, his little sister, Georgia, is busy being a cute 3-year-old, and Evan feels lost: “I just want to find something for me.” His physiotherapist suggests training for the junior division of the Dominator Ninja competition that’s coming up in a few months. Excited by the YouTube videos he sees, Evan feels he’s finally found something he’s chosen for himself and that he can excel at, so he starts building an obstacle course in his backyard to practice in. The straightforward, accessibly written narrative reveals the family’s sometimes fraught dynamics, as Evan’s laidback mom and traditionally hypermasculine dad each support him in their own ways. When Evan sprains his newly healed wrist, Lydia suggests the Parks enter the family team event of an upcoming “super muddy” obstacle course contest called Soiled Pants. The training process helps Evan understand what Lydia means about finding “the sweet spot” between “being competitive and doing your best, all while not being a jerk.” When Soiled Pants arrives, the Parks must rely on true collaboration. While some elements of the resolution feel pat, Evan’s dilemma is relatable, and the story offers an entertaining look at serious issues.
A fun-filled romp grounded in love, family, and plenty of mud. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2024
ISBN: 9781774883433
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Tundra Books
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Charming, poignant, and thoughtfully woven.
An aspiring scientist and a budding artist become friends and help each other with dream projects.
Unfolding in mid-1980s Sacramento, California, this story stars 12-year-olds Rosalind and Benjamin as first-person narrators in alternating chapters. Ro’s father, a fellow space buff, was killed by a drunk driver; the rocket they were working on together lies unfinished in her closet. As for Benji, not only has his best friend, Amir, moved away, but the comic book holding the clue for locating his dad is also missing. Along with their profound personal losses, the protagonists share a fixation with the universe’s intriguing potential: Ro decides to complete the rocket and hopes to launch mementos of her father into outer space while Benji’s conviction that aliens and UFOs are real compels his imagination and creativity as an artist. An accident in science class triggers a chain of events forcing Benji and Ro, who is new to the school, to interact and unintentionally learn each other’s secrets. They resolve to find Benji’s dad—a famous comic-book artist—and partner to finish Ro’s rocket for the science fair. Together, they overcome technical, scheduling, and geographical challenges. Readers will be drawn in by amusing and fantastical elements in the comic book theme, high emotional stakes that arouse sympathy, and well-drawn character development as the protagonists navigate life lessons around grief, patience, self-advocacy, and standing up for others. Ro is biracial (Chinese/White); Benji is White.
Charming, poignant, and thoughtfully woven. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Jan. 12, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-06-300888-5
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Fast-paced and plot-driven.
In his latest, prolific author Gratz takes on Hitler’s Olympic Games.
When 13-year-old American gymnast Evie Harris arrives in Berlin to compete in the 1936 Olympic Games, she has one goal: stardom. If she can bring home a gold medal like her friend, the famous equestrian-turned-Hollywood-star Mary Brooks, she might be able to lift her family out of their Dust Bowl poverty. But someone slips a strange note under Evie’s door, and soon she’s dodging Heinz Fischer, the Hitler Youth member assigned to host her, and meeting strangers who want to make use of her gymnastic skills—to rob a bank. As the games progress, Evie begins to see the moral issues behind their sparkling facade—the antisemitism and racism inherent in Nazi ideology and the way Hitler is using the competition to support and promote these beliefs. And she also agrees to rob the bank. Gratz goes big on the Mission Impossible–style heist, which takes center stage over the actual competitions, other than Jesse Owens’ famous long jump. A lengthy and detailed author’s note provides valuable historical context, including places where Gratz adapted the facts for storytelling purposes (although there’s no mention of the fact that before 1952, Olympic equestrian sports were limited to male military officers). With an emphasis on the plot, many of the characters feel defined primarily by how they’re suffering under the Nazis, such as the fictional diver Ursula Diop, who was involuntarily sterilized for being biracial.
Fast-paced and plot-driven. (Historical fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9781338736106
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2025
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