An engrossing and moving tale about a troubled teen’s relatable struggle toward a hopeful future.
In this YA novel, a 10th grader with divorced, dysfunctional parents strains to cope at home and in school.
Anger, despair, and loneliness overwhelm 15-year-old Elgin Hobbs, the narrator of this tale by a former educator and high school principal. Neither of Elgin’s divorced parents earns a lot of money, but “there’s always enough” for his mom to drink and his father to gamble. “Everything else comes last,” Elgin says. That includes the 10th grader himself. Elgin isn’t a priority for his remarried father, and every day he bears the physical and emotional burden of an alcoholic mother who is loving, but often too drunk to parent her son. The teen’s perspective on his mother’s attempts to overcome the acute alcoholism affecting her health adds another layer of serious concern. (Elgin’s observations of his mother’s repeated failure to stay sober are heart-wrenching; he views his father’s lack of involvement in his life and invariably late child support payments with sad cynicism.) The teen doesn’t see how his guidance counselor’s advice “to let the bad stuff go” and not let it “bring you down” will help. The words take on more weight when he learns that his history teacher had to let go of “bad stuff” in his own adolescent home life. Elgin is affected, too, by the autobiography of an injured Army veteran, and by a helpful study tip from a science teacher. (Thompson, whose empathy for his teen subject rings true, makes it clear that even a few words of support from responsible adults can go a long way.) In this touching and ultimately inspiring tale, Elgin’s subsequent small successes in his classes don’t improve his home situation but do boost his self-confidence. His growing determination to make school a priority, despite his unhappy home situation, and the author’s credible avoidance of an unrealistic, happily-ever-after ending demonstrate that there is real hope that the teen has the strength of purpose to work toward a future of possibility and stability. This absorbing story is part of Thompson’s Finding Forward series of 13 YA novels about teens facing difficult personal situations and discovering positive ways to cope.
An engrossing and moving tale about a troubled teen’s relatable struggle toward a hopeful future.Pub Date: May 28, 2021
ISBN: 9781737315728
Page Count: 122
Publisher: Bookstock Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 5, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An ode to the children of migrants who have been taken away.
A Mexican American boy takes on heavy responsibilities when his family is torn apart.
Mateo’s life is turned upside down the day U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents show up unsuccessfully seeking his Pa at his New York City bodega. The Garcias live in fear until the day both parents are picked up; his Pa is taken to jail and his Ma to a detention center. The adults around Mateo offer support to him and his 7-year-old sister, Sophie, however, he knows he is now responsible for caring for her and the bodega as well as trying to survive junior year—that is, if he wants to fulfill his dream to enter the drama program at the Tisch School of the Arts and become an actor. Mateo’s relationships with his friends Kimmie and Adam (a potential love interest) also suffer repercussions as he keeps his situation a secret. Kimmie is half Korean (her other half is unspecified) and Adam is Italian American; Mateo feels disconnected from them, less American, and with worries they can’t understand. He talks himself out of choosing a safer course of action, a decision that deepens the story. Mateo’s self-awareness and inner monologue at times make him seem older than 16, and, with significant turmoil in the main plot, some side elements feel underdeveloped. Aleman’s narrative joins the ranks of heart-wrenching stories of migrant families who have been separated.
An ode to the children of migrants who have been taken away. (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: May 4, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-7595-5605-8
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 22, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Riveting, brutal and beautifully told.
A devastating tale of greed and secrets springs from the summer that tore Cady’s life apart.
Cady Sinclair’s family uses its inherited wealth to ensure that each successive generation is blond, beautiful and powerful. Reunited each summer by the family patriarch on his private island, his three adult daughters and various grandchildren lead charmed, fairy-tale lives (an idea reinforced by the periodic inclusions of Cady’s reworkings of fairy tales to tell the Sinclair family story). But this is no sanitized, modern Disney fairy tale; this is Cinderella with her stepsisters’ slashed heels in bloody glass slippers. Cady’s fairy-tale retellings are dark, as is the personal tragedy that has led to her examination of the skeletons in the Sinclair castle’s closets; its rent turns out to be extracted in personal sacrifices. Brilliantly, Lockhart resists simply crucifying the Sinclairs, which might make the family’s foreshadowed tragedy predictable or even satisfying. Instead, she humanizes them (and their painful contradictions) by including nostalgic images that showcase the love shared among Cady, her two cousins closest in age, and Gat, the Heathcliff-esque figure she has always loved. Though increasingly disenchanted with the Sinclair legacy of self-absorption, the four believe family redemption is possible—if they have the courage to act. Their sincere hopes and foolish naïveté make the teens’ desperate, grand gesture all that much more tragic.
Riveting, brutal and beautifully told. (Fiction. 14 & up)Pub Date: May 13, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-385-74126-2
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: March 16, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2014
PROFILES
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
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