nonfiction

“Strong silhouettes make the characters
easily identifiable—Peanut is a classic wiener
dog, while Milo has pear-shaped heft.”
from odd dog
multimedia monoprints the pajama-clad tyke envisions a gigantic
cat springing from the clouds with a feral glare and other
violent scenarios. Then brother Chad whispers that it’s only
dinosaurs stomping around, and that does the trick. Instead of
towering figures of menace, the clouded sky fills with huge, amiable
looking dinos whose names Brannon reels off with delight.
By the end the two sibs are cavorting in a “dinosaur thunder
dance” in the middle of the room.
This book’s big brother provides just the ticket for riding
out scary times. (Picture book. 3-6)
JERSEY ANGEL
Bauman, Beth Ann
Wendy Lamb/Random (208 pp.)
$15.99 | $10.99 e-book | PLB $18.99
May 8, 2012
978-0-385-74020-3
978-0-375-89900-3 e-book
978-0-385-90828-3 PLB
Six months in the life of a proudly
sex-positive 17-year-old from the Jersey
Shore (but definitely not Jersey Shore).
Angel Cassonetti’s life is based on two things: her exquisite
awareness of and facility at wielding her sex appeal, and her
close, almost sisterly friendship with Inggy Olofsson. Pale and
blond, studious and monogamous with her longtime boyfriend
Cork, Inggy stands in sharp contrast to the easily tanned, curly
brunette, scholastically blasé and sexually precocious Angel.
When Angel’s longtime on-again, off-again boyfriend Joey tells
her he’s done playing games—“I don’t want to sleep around. I
want to sleep with my girlfriend”—she finds herself drifting
through the summer before senior year. She begins a potentially
explosive secret fling that she can’t quite find a way out
of, though she tells herself “I can stop it anytime. And I will. It’s
not cool. It just isn’t.” School begins anew, and Angel is forced to
confront her future. How long will this secret relationship continue
What comes after graduation, if her carefree approach to
school has made college a no-go for now
Aided by a strong evocation of the tourist-driven rhythms of
life on the Central Jersey Shore and a satisfyingly complicated,
modern protagonist, this quick read will please readers looking
for both nuance and heat in their beach books. (Fiction. 14 & up)
ODD DOG
Boldt, Claudia
Illus. by Boldt, Claudia
NorthSouth (32 pp.)
$16.95 | May 1, 2012
978-0-7358-4068-3
A dachshund struggles with sharing
in this amiable tale.
“Peanut was an odd dog.” He does not care for bones; rather,
he is obsessed with apples. His covetousness leads to paranoia,
as he worries neighbor-dog Milo is plotting to steal his prized
possessions. Playful, lino-cut print illustrations perfectly
express the dogs’ personalities. In a series of panels, the artist
showcases the silliness of Peanut’s suspicion as he comically
attempts to save the juiciest of apples from an oblivious Milo.
Strong silhouettes make the characters easily identifiable—
Peanut is a classic wiener dog, while Milo has pear-shaped heft.
Boldt also adroitly utilizes the limited palette of the medium.
Earthy pastels and brilliant pops of color lend themselves to
a contemporary, modern style. In the end, Peanut learns that
Milo, like most dogs, only likes bones, emotionally freeing the
pensive pup and opening up his world to friendship.
An amusing and charming take on the lessons learned
from sharing. (Picture book. 3-5)
THE SUMMER OF
NO REGRETS
Bond, Katherine Grace
Sourcebooks Fire (304 pp.)
$8.99 paperback | May 1, 2012
978-1-4022-6504-4
This novel about the search for “the
Great Cosmic Mystery” has too many
plot elements and coincidences to throw
light on the subject.
Brigitta Schopenhauer is high-minded
but secretly reads tabloids and writes a blog about celebrities
finding faith. When her best friend Natalie spots a lookalike for
bad-boy teen actor Trent Yves, Brigitta dismisses her. After all, it’s
not really Trent Yves, but a boy named Luke Geoffrey. She’s more
occupied with mourning her deceased grandparents and adjusting
to the recent changes in her father’s behavior, as revealed by
awkward flashbacks. An unnecessary and overdramatic plot twist
features a cougar that nearly attacks Luke until Brigitta chases
it away; when it is shot, it leaves behind two kittens. Luke and
Brigitta grow closer as they care for the kittens, culminating in an
overnight road trip on which Luke kisses Brigitta. The road trip
is a tipping point for more than just Luke and Brigitta’s relationship.
The rest of the novel unravels into a string of clichés and
impulsive acts by the immature Brigitta.
The implausible romance takes away from the strongest
aspect of Bond’s novel: Brigitta’s search for something
bigger than herself. (Fiction. 14 & up)
STRUCK
Bosworth, Jennifer
Farrar, Straus and Giroux (384 pp.)
$17.99 | May 8, 2012
978-0-374-37283-5
Doomsday cults play tug-of-war over
a teenage girl who loves getting struck by
lightning in Bosworth’s debut.
After lightning hits a fault line and
causes a terrible earthquake in Los Angeles,
survivors seek hope. Many turn to a
charismatic fundamentalist who predicted the earthquake and
promises salvation from end times to his followers. Others, like
Mia Price, strive for a return to normalcy—even though a girl
who’s struck by lightning countless times is anything but normal.
While trying to keep her family fed and her mother, badly
traumatized by the earthquake, in one piece, Mia attracts attention
from both the fundamentalist sect and a secret society
that opposes them. In the span of one day, recruiters from both
parties approach her, one wearing white and one black to help
readers tell just how opposed they are. Prophecies and visions
all point to Mia as the key to the upcoming end of the world (in
three days, warns Prophet), as surviving even a single lightning
strike can grant a person supernatural abilities. But mysterious,
handsome Jeremy warns her from choosing either side and offers
a very sudden relationship. While the solid structure relies too
heavily on formula, resulting in predictability, the pacing moves
the narrative along quickly, suiting the time-sensitive plot.
A creative premise and developed setting with a fast,
fun and easy ride of a plot. (Fantasy. 12 & up)
HEY CANADA!
Bowers, Vivien
Illus. by Pavlovic, Milan
Tundra (72 pp.)
$21.95 | May 8, 2012
978-1-77049-255-4
Arrays of small color photos, cartoons
and occasional comic-book pages
provide visuals for a young traveler’s
lively if superficial account of a quick
province-by-province drive across Canada.
Bowers’ travelogue is similar in tone and content but
aimed at a younger audience than her Wow Canada (2010)
(and proceeds east to west before looping north, rather than
the reverse). She takes her 9-year-old narrator to cities, roadside
attractions and natural wonders from Cape Spear to
Iqaluit. The child’s observations are interspersed with side
comments (“We walked around the lake until the mosquitoes
had sucked all our blood”) and brief info-dumps from tour
guides, a fact-loving little cousin and others. Simplification
leads to some misinformation (no, the West Edmonton Mall
is not the “world’s biggest,” nor is it strictly accurate to claim
that Lake Michigan is “the only [great] lake not in Canada”).
Ultimately and unfortunately, readers will come away knowing
much more about regional foods (“Tried eating haggis.
Big mistake”) and other artifacts of European settlement
than newer immigrant populations or even, until the chapter
on Nunavut, First Nations.
Still, for armchair tourists, a broad if rosy picture of
our neighbor to the north. (maps, index) (Nonfiction. 9-11)
DEVINE
INTERVENTION
Brockenbrough, Martha
Levine/Scholastic (304 pp.)
$17.99 | Jun. 1, 2012
978-0-545-38213-7
Jerome is no teen angel.
A hell raiser when alive and killed by
his cousin in eighth grade in an unfortunate
archery accident, he has spent
his afterlife in Soul Rehab assigned to
Heidi in an attempt to win his way into Heaven. Not that he’s
very committed to the notion; he lost his “Guardian Angel’s
Handbook” pretty much right away, but he sort of tries. Heidi
has more or less enjoyed Jerome’s company, though he could
sometimes be annoying. When Heidi, having experienced
unendurable humiliation in a high-school talent show, ventures
onto thin ice and falls through, Jerome does his best to
save her soul—as much for her own sake, he’s surprised to find,
as for his. Brockenbrough devises a devilishly clever narrative,
alternating Jerome’s first-person account with Heidi’s tightly
focused third-person perspective. Tying both together are commandment-by-commandment
excerpts (often footnoted) from
Jerome’s lost handbook, each stricture slyly informing the succeeding
chapter. The rules governing Jerome’s afterlife lead to
frequently hysterical prose. He can’t swear, of course, so he substitutes
euphemisms: “… if I weren’t so chickenchevy”; “It was
a real mind-flask.” Beneath the snark, though, runs a current of
devastatingly honest writing that surprises with its occasional
beauty and hits home with the keenness of its insight.
As the clock ticks down on Heidi’s soul, readers will
be rooting for both Jerome and Heidi with all their hearts.
(Paranormal adventure. 12 & up)
WALK THE TALK
Brouwer, Sigmund
Illus. by Whamond, Dave
Orca (64 pp.)
$6.95 paperback | May 1, 2012
978-1-55469-929-2
Series: Justine McKeen, 2
Justine, an environmentally focused
grade schooler, is back for another easyto-read
outing (Justine McKeen: Queen of
Green, 2011).
844 | 15 april 2012 | children’s & teen | kirkusreviews.com |
| kirkusreviews.com | children’s & teen | 15 april 2012 | 845