Review by New York Times Review
THE HEARTBEAT OF WOUNDED KNEE: Native America From 1890 to the Present, by David Treuer. (Riverhead, $28.) This response to Dee Brown's "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee" highlights the numerous achievements of Native Americans over the past century, and celebrates their resilience and adaptability in the face of prejudice, violence and the many other obstacles placed in their way. HARK, by Sam Lipsyte. (Simon & Schuster, $27.) The attraction and repulsion between a would-be messiah and his apostle anchors this madcap skewering of contemporary culture packed with fake gurus, cheating spouses, junk-food obsessions and yoga. INHERITANCE: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity, and Love, by Dani Shapiro. (Knopf, $24.95.) A DNA test submitted on a whim upends Shapiro's assumptions about her family history and forms the basis for her new book, a searching exploration of the power of blood ties to shape our sense of who we are. AN ORCHESTRA OF MINORITIES, by Chigozie Obioma. (Little, Brown, $28.) A sweeping epic centered on a fraught romance between a humble poultry farmer and the daughter of a prosperous chief, Obioma's new novel travels from rural Nigeria to Cyprus and to the cosmic domain of the Igbo guardian spirit who watches over and recounts the proceedings. ARISTOTLE'S WAY: How Ancient Wisdom Can Change Your Life, by Edith Hall. (Penguin Press, $27.) Aristotle was concerned with how to achieve a virtuous, happy life. Hall sees his answer as a source of great comfort, his most important insight being that people need to find their own purpose and search out a middle way - "nothing in excess," the philosopher said. THE WORLD ACCORDING TO FANNIE DAVIS: My Mother's Life in the Detroit Numbers, by Bridgett M. Davis. (Little, Brown, $28.) Davis's heartwarming memoir honors her remarkable mother, who made a good life for her family in the '60s and '70s. THE FALCONER, by Dana Czapnik. (Atria, $25.) In this electric debut novel, 17-year-old Lucy's coming-of-age is powerfully shaped by her encounters with basketball and New York City itself, even as she constantly brushes up against the constrictions society places on her sex. IN MY MIND'S EYE: A Thought Diary, by Jan Morris. (Liveright, $24.95.) The beloved nonagenarian writer shares a year of observations - of herself and of the changes she's observed. TO NIGHT OWL FROM DOGFISH, by Holly Goldberg Sloan and Meg Wolitzer. (Dial, $17.99; ages 9 to 12.) Told in a series of frantic emails and other correspondence, this hilarious novel follows two girls who have never met - one in California, one in New York - who learn that their single dads plan to marry each other. The full reviews of these and other recent books are on the web: nytimes.com/books
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [March 11, 2019]
Review by Booklist Review
Two popular writers team up for a Where'd You Go, Bernadette-esque tale for the middle-school set. An entire country lies between anxious New Yorker Avery Bloom and adventurous Bett Devlin, but there's something powerful connecting them: their dads are in love. At first horrified at the prospect of becoming gulp sisters, the two surprise themselves by bonding at a summer sleepaway camp while their dads motorcycle their way across China. But when their dads' relationship sours, they're willing to do whatever it takes to get them back together. Even if the target readership eschews email these days, they'll be hard-pressed not to be laughing out loud at the witty, clever email and letter repartee among the girls, their dads, and the rest of the supporting cast. Though the story lacks the emotional depth of more true-to-life novels dealing with blended families, such as Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich and Audrey Vernick's Naomis Too (2018), its escalating stakes and Parent Trap-like setup is sure to appeal to both authors' fan bases. Alternately heartwarming and hilarious.--Jennifer Barnes Copyright 2010 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Peeking at her father's emails, 12-year-old Californian Bett learns two pieces of upsetting information: her father has fallen in love with a man she's never met, and the two of them are scheming to send Bett and the man's 12-year-old daughter, Avery, away to summer camp together. Furious, Bett finds Avery's email address to break the horrible news. The girls vow not to speak to each other during the summer, but despite their differences (Bett is spontaneous and adventurous; Avery is bookish and fearful), they form a strong bond. When their fathers part ways during a disastrous trip to China, the girls, who had been looking forward to being sisters, are determined to find a way to reunite them. Written entirely in emails and letters, this laugh-out-loud novel showcases the collaborative skills of bestselling authors Sloan (Short) and Wolitzer (Bellzhar). In addition to the two distraught protagonists, the authors create several other unforgettable characters, including Avery's estranged biological mother and Bett's feisty grandmother. Featuring a dramatic climax and a host of surprising twists, the novel affirms that families conventional and unconventional are families just the same. Ages 10-up. (Feb.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 5--8--When 12-year-old Bett Devlin composed an email with the subject line "you don't know me," she was pleasantly surprised when Avery Bloom replied. Bett is eager to announce that their fathers, who met at a building expo, are now a couple with high hopes of their daughters forming a friendship during an upcoming eight-week summer camp. Neither agrees with this "instant" family idea and join forces to thwart it. At first, it is a formidable task considering Avery and Bett are as opposite as the coasts they live on: Avery is a nerdy New Yorker, Bett a carefree Cali girl. Yet it is their very differences that ultimately help them form a bond of strength and determination in this delightful Parent Trap--esque novel. Imani Parks and Cassandra Morris join forces with a talented ensemble cast: Cassandra Campbell, Michael Crouch, Robbie Daymond, Giordan Diaz, Ronata Friedman, Alexandra Harris, Sullivan Jones, Johnathan McClain, Emily Rankin, Abigail Revasch, Erin Spencer, Bahni Turpin, and Emily Woo Zeller. Each narrator gives the full scale of emotions their character demands: giddy to gut-wrenching. Told entirely through emails and the occasional letter, a clever tinkling chime announces a new message, allowing for seamless, often rapid, transition of speakers and subjects. VERDICT A thought-provoking novel about finding fun adventures, new friends, and even new family members in some of the least expected places, this is sure to be a top choice for tweens.--Cheryl Preisendorfer, Twinsburg City School District, OH
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Review by Horn Book Review
At the start of this epistolary (via email) novel, twelve-year-olds Bett Devlin, an adventure-loving California girl of African American and Brazilian descent, and Avery Bloom, a tightly wound New Yorker whose single father is Ukrainian Jewish, are strangers (and adversaries) about to be thrown together at sleep-away summer camp. Their fathers are semi-secretly, bi-coastally dating, and they want their daughters to get to know each other while they themselves are vacationing in China. The girls are resistant, especially set-in-her-ways Avery, but they gradually become non-enemies and then friends and then actually psyched to become sisters, keeping up their correspondence even after camp ends (spoiler alert: they get kicked out). But while Bett and Avery are busily planning a wedding, their dadswhose misadventures in China are humorously detailedare breaking up. Some Parent Traptype shenanigans ensue, but the storys main focus is the strength of chosen family. Sloan and Wolitzer nicely differentiate their protagonists voices, making the emails believable even while the girls are seeing each other every day at camp. Occasional missives from well-drawn supporting players (the dads, Betts personality-filled grandmother, Averys back-in-the-picture birth mother) deepen the characterizations while further entwining the two families. Although the secondary storylines are somewhat farfetched, the warmth of the characters interactions, including the girls witty banter (You and I are now the Romeo and Juliet of friendship. Only were the Juliet and Juliet), is emotionally satisfying. elissa Gershowitz March/April 2019 p 90(c) Copyright 2019. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
The Parent Trap gets a modern makeover in this entertaining and endearing middle-grade novel about two 12-year-old girls, one camp, and a summer that will bond them for a lifetime. Avery, an aspiring writer from New York, and Bett, a California surfer girl, are the lights of their respective single father's livesand each is very much used to it. So the news that their gay dads fell in love at a conference and have been secretly dating for three months does not sit well with either of them. Worse still, the girls are bundled off to a nerd camp where they are expected to bond like family while their dads head off on an eight-week motorcycle adventure in China. Sloan and Wolizter make strategic use of their tale's epistolary (or rather email) format to create two disparate yet familiar-feeling three-dimensional characters who are from very different worlds. That they will eventually become sisters feels inevitable, but that does not diminish the enjoyment of watching Avery and Bett bond over animals at camp, gradually growing toward each other and then with each other. Their increasing closeness is tracked in the evolution of their correspondence, which becomes littered with nicknames and discussions of everything from periods and pet phobias to boys. Bett is African-American and was carried by a Brazilian surrogate, and Avery has both white and Jewish heritages.A sweet and amusing tale that celebrates diversity while reinforcing the power of love and the importance of family. (Fiction. 10-13) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
