Delightfully told and sure to please.
“How did I get here?”
Those words echo through the mind of 13-year-old Movits Lind (Mo for short) as he stands atop the tallest skateboard ramp in Sweden, with his parents, his crush, and a TV crew below waiting for him to dazzle them with amazing tricks. The problem? Mo has no clue what he’s doing. Following this breathlessly immersive opening, Rundberg rewinds, taking readers on a highly satisfying journey as he reveals the events leading up to this moment. We learn that Mo and BFF Ruben are unathletic kids—video games and chess are where they soar—but while at a local park watching Ruben’s brother skate, they meet a hip skater girl named Bea. Mo falls hard for her, and after he tries out some skating moves to impress her and her friends—and by chance performs well—a video of his performance goes viral. Now Mo has an entirely unearned reputation as a talented skater, and though he’s uneasy—especially when a television company contacts him—he’s reluctant to come clean to Bea. Though the skating plotline drives this narrative, originally published in Sweden, the humor and attraction lie in the quiet moments of Mo’s daily life, from arguments with family members to cringe-inducing (and sweetly swoonworthy) interactions with Bea. Educators will find this an excellent read-aloud option, although the occasional Swedish word may require a little practice. Most characters present white.
Delightfully told and sure to please. (Fiction. 10-12)Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2025
ISBN: 9781662532030
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Amazon Crossing Kids
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2025
On equal footing with a garden-variety potato.
The new kid in school endures becoming the school mascot.
Ben Hardy has never cared for potatoes, and this distaste has become a barrier to adjusting to life in his new Idaho town. His school’s mascot is the Spud, and after a series of misfortunes, Ben is enlisted to don the potato costume and cheer on his school’s team. Ben balances his duties as a life-sized potato against his desperate desire to hide the fact that he’s the dork in the suit. After all, his cute new crush, Jayla, wouldn’t be too impressed to discover Ben’s secret. The ensuing novel is a fairly boilerplate middle–grade narrative: snarky tween protagonist, the crush that isn’t quite what she seems, and a pair of best friends that have more going on than our hero initially believes. The author keeps the novel moving quickly, pushing forward with witty asides and narrative momentum so fast that readers won’t really mind that the plot’s spine is one they’ve encountered many times before. Once finished, readers will feel little resonance and move on to the next book in their to-read piles, but in the moment the novel is pleasant enough. Ben, Jayla, and Ben’s friend Hunter are white while Ellie, Ben’s other good pal, is Latina.
On equal footing with a garden-variety potato. (Fiction. 10-12)Pub Date: March 24, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-11866-5
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Nov. 23, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
Cinematic, over-the-top decadence, a tense race against time, and lessons on what’s truly valuable.
A reward of $5,000,000 almost ruins everything for two seventh graders.
On a class trip to New York City, Felix and Benji find a wallet belonging to social media billionaire Laura Friendly. Benji, a well-off, chaotic kid with learning disabilities, swipes $20 from the wallet before they send it back to its owner. Felix, a poor, shy, rule-follower, reluctantly consents. So when Laura Friendly herself arrives to give them a reward for the returned wallet, she’s annoyed. To teach her larcenous helpers a lesson, Laura offers them a deal: a $20,000 college scholarship or slightly over $5 million cash—but with strings attached. The boys must spend all the money in 30 days, with legal stipulations preventing them from giving anything away, investing, or telling anyone about it. The glorious windfall quickly grows to become a chore and then a torment as the boys appear increasingly selfish and irresponsible to the adults in their lives. They rent luxury cars, hire a (wonderful) philosophy undergrad as a chauffeur, take their families to Disney World, and spend thousands on in-app game purchases. Yet, surrounded by hedonistically described piles of loot and filthy lucre, the boys long for simpler fundamentals. The absorbing spending spree reads like a fun family film, gleefully stuffed with the very opulence it warns against. Major characters are White.
Cinematic, over-the-top decadence, a tense race against time, and lessons on what’s truly valuable. (mathematical explanations) (Fiction. 10-12)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-17525-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: June 29, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2020
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