Beautiful writing cannot compensate for weaknesses in worldbuilding.
A boy, accompanied by ghosts and a bald-faced pony, sets out to rescue his father.
Silas Bird, 12, his father, a Scottish immigrant bootmaker and experimental photographer, and Mittenwool, a ghost only Silas can see, live near the fictional Ohio town of Boneville in 1860. One night, three armed strangers on horseback insist that Pa come do some sort of business with them. Pa promises he’ll return in a week, but the next morning, when a pony one of the men was leading returns to the farm, Silas decides to ride after him, though it means braving the ancient and terrifying Woods, more ghosts, and his own fears. Palacio writes smoothly, with engaging details, but narrator Silas sometimes seems far younger than 12 and other times too adult. The presentation of the ghosts is also inconsistent: Some can see each other, others can’t; Silas recognizes some as ghosts but thinks others are living people. A conversation between Silas and a White settler, following a scene in which Silas encounters the ghosts of Native people massacred by the U.S. government, plays into unfortunate tropes of Indian nations no longer existing. The eponymous Pony drives several plot points but doesn’t come across as a real equine. Among other horse-related slip-ups, novice rider Silas manages a 12-hour day without either himself or the pony dropping from exhaustion. Atmospheric daguerreotypes front each chapter. All characters are White.
Beautiful writing cannot compensate for weaknesses in worldbuilding. (author's note) (Historical fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Sept. 28, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-553-50811-6
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: July 15, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2021
Riveting, inspiring, and sometimes hilarious.
If you made a recording to be heard by the aliens who found the iPod, what would you record?
For 11-year-old Alex Petroski, it's easy. He records everything. He records the story of how he travels to New Mexico to a rocket festival with his dog, Carl Sagan, and his rocket. He records finding out that a man with the same name and birthday as his dead father has an address in Las Vegas. He records eating at Johnny Rockets for the first time with his new friends, who are giving him a ride to find his dead father (who might not be dead!), and losing Carl Sagan in the wilds of Las Vegas, and discovering he has a half sister. He even records his own awful accident. Cheng delivers a sweet, soulful debut novel with a brilliant, refreshing structure. His characters manage to come alive through the “transcript” of Alex’s iPod recording, an odd medium that sounds like it would be confusing but really works. Taking inspiration from the Voyager Golden Record released to space in 1977, Alex, who explains he has “light brown skin,” records all the important moments of a journey that takes him from a family of two to a family of plenty.
Riveting, inspiring, and sometimes hilarious. (Fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Feb. 28, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-399-18637-0
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 18, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
Poignant, respectful, and historically accurate while pulsating with emotional turmoil, adventure, and suspense.
In the midst of political turmoil, how do you escape the only country that you’ve ever known and navigate a new life? Parallel stories of three different middle school–aged refugees—Josef from Nazi Germany in 1938, Isabel from 1994 Cuba, and Mahmoud from 2015 Aleppo—eventually intertwine for maximum impact.
Three countries, three time periods, three brave protagonists. Yet these three refugee odysseys have so much in common. Each traverses a landscape ruled by a dictator and must balance freedom, family, and responsibility. Each initially leaves by boat, struggles between visibility and invisibility, copes with repeated obstacles and heart-wrenching loss, and gains resilience in the process. Each third-person narrative offers an accessible look at migration under duress, in which the behavior of familiar adults changes unpredictably, strangers exploit the vulnerabilities of transients, and circumstances seem driven by random luck. Mahmoud eventually concludes that visibility is best: “See us….Hear us. Help us.” With this book, Gratz accomplishes a feat that is nothing short of brilliant, offering a skillfully wrought narrative laced with global and intergenerational reverberations that signal hope for the future. Excellent for older middle grade and above in classrooms, book groups, and/or communities looking to increase empathy for new and existing arrivals from afar.
Poignant, respectful, and historically accurate while pulsating with emotional turmoil, adventure, and suspense. (maps, author’s note) (Historical fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: July 25, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-545-88083-1
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2017
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