School Library Journal Review
Gr 5-8-Suze Tamaki is coasting lazily through seventh grade when her mother, Caroline, suddenly reappears after 10 years of abandonment and her English teacher tricks her into switching to Honors English and pairs her with her overachiever best friend. Suze hates being forced to live up to everyone's high expectations. She wants to get to know her mother, but her older sister, Tracie, gets angry at her if she even talks to Caroline. Suze feels caught in the middle of everything when all she wants to do is snuggle up in bed and read. Anthony explores the issues of absent parents, family dynamics, and second chances. Suze is biracial (she is Japanese-Anglo-Canadian), though her biracial identity is not the focus here. The novel moves a bit too slowly, with occasional emphasis on unnecessary details that drag the pacing to a crawl. VERDICT An additional purchase for libraries in need of realistic fiction set in Canada.-Rachel -Reinwald, Lake Villa District Library, IL © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Suze Tamaki was three years old when her mother, Caroline, walked out on the family. Now, 10 years later, Caroline has returned to Victoria, B.C., ready to get to know Suze and her older sister, Tracie. After Caroline left, Tracie and Suze made a pact, promising never to speak to their mother again. Suze is secretly curious about Caroline, but Tracie is holding her to their promise, so Suze keeps her meetings with Caroline a secret. Suze is also balancing problems with friends and at school: Suze keeps getting sent to the office, and her grades are average at best, though Suze's English teacher sees her potential, moving her into an honors class. Anthony's (The Right & the Real) characters, both central and secondary, are fully dimensional, and Suze and Caroline's frustrations are realistically portrayed as they make awkward attempts at a fresh start (such as when Caroline unthinkingly gives Suze a gift basket that includes a bottle of Prosecco). Suze's dry-borderline sardonic-narration makes for thoroughly entertaining reading as Anthony sympathetically explores the vulnerability of the early teen years. Ages 9-13. Agent: Michael Bourret, Dystel, Goderich & Bourret. (Mar.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
