This tale of ultimate wish fulfillment is a must-read for starry-eyed fans of boy bands.
A preteen girl obsessed with a boy band learns that her biggest dream is coming true—she’s joining the band on their tour!
Artist-in-training Mackenzie is a perky seventh-grader obsessed with the dreamy boy band Perfect Storm. The group—pensive Kyle, prankster Heath, and supercute Zander—is quickly rising up through the charts. Determined to meet the impossibly blue-eyed Zander in person, Mackenzie writes him a poem and draws a poster, but she signs her middle name, Sabrina. When she learns that her mother, who works for a prestigious tour-management firm, will be taking her along to help manage PS' tour, she can’t believe her good fortune. Once on the road with the boys, she quickly learns that they’re nothing like their projected personas and that she may have more in common with Kyle than Zander. But when PS launches a fan contest and Sabrina's entry is picked for a finalist, Mac may have to come clean about what she's done—and whom she really likes. Written in diary entries and interspersed with vaguely manga-styled illustrations as well as some of Mackenzie’s comic-book stories, this hits the sweet spot for fans of Dork Diaries.
This tale of ultimate wish fulfillment is a must-read for starry-eyed fans of boy bands. (Fiction. 7-12)Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-316-25972-9
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Sept. 15, 2015
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
A worthy combination of athletic action, the virtues of inner strength, and the importance of friendship.
A young tennis champion becomes the target of revenge.
In this sequel to Legacy and the Queen (2019), Legacy Petrin and her friends Javi and Pippa have returned to Legacy’s home province and the orphanage run by her father. With her friends’ help, she is in training to defend her championship when they discover that another player, operating under the protection of High Consul Silla, is presenting herself as Legacy. She is so convincing that the real Legacy is accused of being an imitation. False Legacy has become a hero to the masses, further strengthening Silla’s hold, and it becomes imperative to uncover and defeat her. If Legacy is to win again, she must play her imposter while disguised as someone else. Winning at tennis is not just about money and fame, but resisting Silla’s plans to send more young people into brutal mines with little hope of better lives. Legacy will have to overcome her fears and find the magic that allowed her to claim victory in the past. This story, with its elements of sports, fantasy, and social consciousness that highlight tensions between the powerful and those they prey upon, successfully continues the series conceived by late basketball superstar Bryant. As before, the tennis matches are depicted with pace and spirit. Legacy and Javi have brown skin; most other characters default to White.
A worthy combination of athletic action, the virtues of inner strength, and the importance of friendship. (Fantasy. 9-12)Pub Date: Aug. 24, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-949520-19-4
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Granity Studios
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2021
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