The first outing in the Christian-based supernatural-thriller series The Elijah Project features 16-year-old Zack, 13-year-old Piper and their six-year-old brother Elijah. Readers learn early on that Elijah possesses extraordinary healing powers and that his family has been moving frequently to keep him out of the clutches of a villain, dubbed Shadow Man, and his lackeys. But not enough is revealed about Elijah, his family or the Shadow Man to allow readers to truly get invested in the story. The plot consists mainly of the kids and their friends outsmarting and running away from the evildoers in an RV; in fact, they run and they run and they run until the story simply stops in an ending much too abrupt even for a book in a series. An overdose of mystery, the clipped ending and uneven writing undercut this title, but considering the high demand for kids’ Christian fiction and the proportionally short supply, it’s likely that The Elijah Project will find a devoted following nonetheless. (Thriller. 8-12)
Pub Date: May 1, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-310-71193-3
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Zonderkidz
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2009
Categories: CHILDREN'S RELIGIOUS FICTION
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In 1938, a Jewish refugee from Poland joins her father in small-town Cuba.
After three years abroad, Papa’s saved only enough money to send for one of his children. Thus Esther boards the steamship alone even though she’s not quite 12. Cuba is a constant surprise: Her father’s an itinerant peddler and not a shopkeeper; they live as the only Jews in a tiny village; and she’s allowed to wear sandals and go bare-legged in the heat. But the island is also a constant joy. Nearly everyone Esther meets is generous beyond their means. She adores her new trade as a dressmaker, selling her creations in Havana to earn money to bring over the rest of the family. In glowing letters to her sister back in Poland, Esther details how she’s learning Spanish through the poems of José Martí. She introduces her sister to her beloved new friends: a White doctor’s wife and her vegetarian, atheist husband; a Black, Santería-following granddaughter of an ex-slave; a Chinese Cuban shopkeeper’s nephew. Esther’s first year in Cuba is marked by the calendar of Jewish holidays, as she wonders if she can be both Cuban and a Jew. As the coming war looms in Europe, she and her friends find solidarity, standing together against local Nazis and strike breakers. An author’s note describes how the story was loosely inspired by the author’s own family history.
Warmhearted cross-cultural friendship for a refugee on distant shores: both necessary and kind. (bibliography) (Historical fiction. 8-11)Pub Date: Aug. 25, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-525-51647-7
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Nancy Paulsen Books
Review Posted Online: June 3, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2020
Categories: CHILDREN'S RELIGIOUS FICTION | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES
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PERSPECTIVES
A powerful blend of important themes and everyday triumphs and sorrows.
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It’s 1967, and Ariel Goldberg’s adored older sister, Leah, has fallen for Raj, an immigrant college student from Bombay.
Their parents disapprove: To them, it’s bad enough that Leah wants to marry someone of a different race, even worse that he isn’t Jewish. After Leah elopes without even a letter to her sister, 11-year-old Ari is forced to reckon with a new understanding of her place within her family as the daughter who is now expected to take on the good-girl role. But that’s not her only problem. Her parents dreamed of a better life, yet they can’t afford to keep their beloved bakery running. Her mother sees Ari’s struggle with dysgraphia as laziness, and as the only Jewish kid in sixth grade, she faces antisemitism that goes unrecognized by her teachers. Her strained relationship with her parents and their beliefs rings heartbreakingly true alongside her struggle to find her own voice through poetry. As she and her best friend set out in secret to find Leah and repair her broken family, Ari must decide what she believes is right in an increasingly tumultuous world. Hiranandani captures with great nuance the details of Ari’s life. Sacrifices in the service of assimilation, the lies we tell the people we love most, and how we go about forgiving them are given specificity in Ari’s matter-of-fact and observant second-person present point of view.
A powerful blend of important themes and everyday triumphs and sorrows. (author's note) (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 14, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-525-55503-2
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Kokila
Review Posted Online: July 8, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2021
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