Justin Barisich

Children's & YAMiddle Grade

One boy’s journey

Review by Justin Barisich

We’ve all heard news reports about refugees fleeing their homes for any number of reasons in search of a better life. And for most of us, once the news report ends, so do our thoughts about their lives. But Illegal does something special—it forces readers to stop and consider the humanity of the people who are so often portrayed as mere statistics.

Twelve-year-old Ebo is determined to make it out of his poor village in Ghana. His older sister and brother have already fled, so Ebo decides to slip away and risk everything to cross the Sahara Desert and the unforgiving sea in hopes of making it to Europe. More of Ebo’s history is revealed through flashbacks as the narrative jumps between his current situation—floating helplessly on a slowly deflating life raft—and the pivotal moments of his life in Ghana.

With Illegal, writers Eoin Colfer (Artemis Fowl) and Andrew Donkin—along with award-winning illustrator Giovanni Rigano—have created a gripping account of a 21st-century refugee’s experience. This vivid, powerful graphic novel, drawn from original interviews with undocumented immigrants, asks the reader to take in someone else’s plight, and then leaves them with a new sense of empathy, understanding and compassion.

 

This article was originally published in the August 2018 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

We’ve all heard news reports about refugees fleeing their homes for any number of reasons in search of a better life. And for most of us, once the news report ends, so do our thoughts about their lives. But Illegal does something special—it forces readers to stop and consider the humanity of the people who are so often portrayed as mere statistics.

YA FictionYAShort Stories

A treasure trove of classic stories

Review by Justin Barisich

As a collection of Asian myths and legends, A Thousand Beginnings and Endings could be required reading for any classroom. Fifteen acclaimed Asian and Asian-American authors breathe fresh life into 15 popular Asian folktales and myths, elevating this anthology to a higher level.

Editors Ellen Oh (YA author and co-founder of the nonprofit organization We Need Diverse Books) and Elsie Chapman (a fellow author and member of the same nonprofit) have compiled these diverse narratives to represent the stories and cultures of East and South Asian peoples, who are all too often disregarded in modern media and publishing.

Fifteen popular Asian legends are given new life in this collection.

Spanning Chinese, Filipino, Gujarati, Hmong, Japanese, Korean, Punjabi and Vietnamese cultures, authors such as Renée Ahdieh (The Wrath and the Dawn), E.C. Myers (Fair Coin) and Aisha Saeed (Written in the Stars) have reimagined the stories of their ancestors from their own viewpoints, crafting layered tales with nuance and cultural wherewithal. For example, in Ahdieh’s “Nothing into All,” a brother and sister try to lift themselves out of poverty by using the magic of forest goblins to transform common objects into gold, but the dueling good and evil in their natures result in twisted desires and irreversible consequences.

The retooled stories included here fall into many categories—fantasy, science fiction, romance—and each gives the reader newfound insight into Asian culture and history. As a welcome bonus, each author has penned an educational essay chronicling the historical origins of their chosen tale.

By giving these bestselling and award-winning authors an opportunity to freely explore their histories and identities, Oh and Chapman have created a work that celebrates Asian storytelling. It should fill the authors and editors with pride and the reader with wonder.

 

This article was originally published in the July 2018 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

As a collection of Asian myths and legends, A Thousand Beginnings and Endings could be required reading for any classroom. Fifteen acclaimed Asian and Asian-American authors breathe fresh life into 15 popular Asian folktales and myths, elevating this anthology to a higher level.

Children's & YAMiddle Grade

A tender tale of found family

Review by Justin Barisich

With flying fish that fling themselves onto the doorsteps of its rainbow-colored homes, Allora is a charming seaside town unlike any other. But this quiet and quirky town also has a heartbreaking past—one that brings together the characters of The Boy, the Bird, and the Coffin Maker.

Thirty years ago, Alberto the carpenter lost his wife and three children to a plague that ravaged Allora. Alberto built five coffins—one for each family member he’d lost and one for himself. But Alberto survived. Now an old man, he notices that some food has suddenly gone missing from his home. He discovers that the thieves are Tito and Fia, a small, hungry boy and an unusual bird. After many weeks, Alberto befriends the pair and convinces them to live with him rather than in an abandoned shed on the outskirts of town. Tito reminds Alberto of his own children and his long-forgotten happiness, and he begins to teach Tito carpentry, how to read and how to grieve his dead mother—whom Alberto built a coffin for just weeks ago. When Tito reveals that he and his mother originally came to Allora to escape his abusive father, Alberto is determined to protect him.

With magical realism reminiscent of Gabriel García Márquez, author Matilda Woods has crafted a tender tale about the power of kindness in light of tragedy, accompanied by magical illustrations from Anuska Allepuz. Woods’ simple yet beautiful prose is open, honest and bears the soul of each of her characters.

 

This article was originally published in the June 2018 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

With flying fish that fling themselves onto the doorsteps of its rainbow-colored homes, Allora is a charming seaside town unlike any other. But this quiet and quirky town also has a heartbreaking past—one that brings together the characters of The Boy, the Bird, and the Coffin Maker.

YAPoetry

Poetry that cuts through the noise

Review by Justin Barisich

Naomi Shihab Nye poses a question in her introduction that echoes throughout Voices in the Air: “With so much vying for our attention, how do we listen better?” This collection of poems aimed at teen readers is an attempt to perhaps provide an answer to that very question, to offer examples of how we can find that quiet inspiration that’s necessary as water and to show how doing so might just save us all.

Throughout her poems in this volume, Nye honors her heroes—both literary and otherwise—all the while pulling inspiration from everything around her, as if all she had to do was stop talking long enough to listen to the stories that have been floating right past her. She encourages readers to break the cocoon of worry; to seek a personal peace rather than giving in to external anxieties; and to throw off the pressures of our modern, always-on culture in favor of something that’s a little slower, more perceptive and more receptive. Citing Jack Kerouac’s vital advice, she reminds us all: “Rest and be kind, you don’t have to prove anything.”

Nye has won many awards throughout her writing career, including a Guggenheim Fellowship and four Pushcart Prizes, and like her previous acclaimed works, Voices in the Air remains both sensitive and culturally aware, all the while achieving her goal of steadily transmitting simple stories that hit close to heart.

 

Justin Barisich is a freelancer, satirist, poet and performer living in Atlanta. More of his writing can be found at littlewritingman.com.

The central question around which Naomi Shihab Nye has crafted Voices in the Air is one she poses in her introduction: “With so much vying for our attention, how do we listen better?” This collection of poems is an attempt to perhaps provide an answer to that very question, to offer examples of how we can find that quiet inspiration that’s as necessary as water, and to show how doing so might just save us all.

YA FictionYA

Testing the limits of young love

Review by Justin Barisich

In the near-future, vast maguey fields span what’s left of the bone-dry Southwest landscape of Samantha Mabry's All the Wind in the World. Two teens must work themselves to the bone in order to survive, and they con their way through ranches while hoping to save enough money to finally live someplace where they no longer need to keep their love a secret.

Sarah Jac and James have been hopping railcars across the thirsty remnants of the United States for years now, working as maguey-harvesting jimadors and hiding their love by pretending to be cousins. They’ve learned, in the harshest of ways, that any emotional weakness can become someone else’s weapon. So they’ve adopted the mantra of “hard hearts”—all the while preying upon the naivety of their fellow ranch hands in order to avoid being taken advantage of themselves.

But after Sarah Jac accidentally causes the death of an overseer at a ranch in New Mexico, the young couple is forced to escape to The Real Marvelous, a Texas ranch long rumored to be cursed. What they find there, and who they meet, will test the depths of their sanity, their suffering, their trust and, ultimately, their love.

Mabry’s debut novel, A Fierce and Subtle Poison, was named one of the Best YA Books of 2016 by Paste Magazine. And in All the Wind in the World, she continues to craft mesmerizing characters. Most impressive is the way Mabry portrays Sarah Jac and James’ love—subtle, raw, honest, untrivialized—especially considering the direness of their circumstances throughout this modern, post-apocalyptic Western that's filtered through the haze of magical realism.

 

Justin Barisich is a freelancer, satirist, poet and performer living in Atlanta. More of his writing can be found at littlewritingman.com.

 

 

In the near-future, vast maguey fields span what’s left of the bone-dry Southwest landscape of Samantha Mabry's All the Wind in the World. Two teens must work themselves to the bone in order to survive, and they con their way through ranches while hoping to save enough money to finally live someplace where they no longer need to keep their love a secret.

YA FictionYA

The complexities of dealing death

Review by Justin Barisich

As the second installment in Neal Shusterman’s Arc of a Scythe series, Thunderhead takes us back to the post-mortal utopia, which is watched over by the benevolent, all-knowing artificial intelligence known as the Thunderhead and where death only comes by the flawed, bloody hand of the Scythedom. But since Rowan and Citra’s last appearance at the conclave, the Scythedom’s political arena has only grown more fractured and dangerous—especially since murdered scythes have started turning up across the country.

What began as ideological differences on the methods and responsibilities of gleanings (government-sanctioned assassinations) has since evolved into a great divide between the old guard and new order Scythes. Citra, now ordained as junior Scythe Anastasia, continues to glean with respect and compassion. Meanwhile, Rowan has donned a black robe and has given himself the name Scythe Lucifer, living as a vigilante and slaying corrupt scythes. Yet no matter the approach, each character soon learns that there are things in their world far worse than death.

As the Thunderhead watches the scythes tear themselves, each other and perhaps the rest of the planet apart with their nearly unrestricted power, all it can do is find loopholes in the laws and hint at possible solutions. And as its omniscient frustration mounts, the Thunderhead threatens to crack wide open in retaliation.

Shusterman’s writing in Thunderhead is never predictable, and his skillful control of the narrative is as strong as it was in his Printz Honor-winning Scythe. The addition of the normally placid Thunderhead’s frustrated journal entries interspersed between these chapters is as intriguing as the stories behind the Scythedom’s bloodstains.

 

Justin Barisich is a freelancer, satirist, poet and performer living in Atlanta. More of his writing can be found at littlewritingman.com.

As the second installment in Neal Shusterman’s Arc of a Scythe series, Thunderhead takes us back to the post-mortal utopia, which is watched over by the benevolent, all-knowing artificial intelligence known as the Thunderhead and where death only comes by the flawed, bloody hand of the Scythedom. But since Rowan and Citra’s last appearance at the conclave, the Scythedom’s political arena has only grown more fractured and dangerous—especially since murdered scythes have started turning up across the country.

Children's & YAMiddle Grade

A fantastic quest

Review by Justin Barisich

Like its townsfolk, Lenburh is a quiet, meager place where very little ever happens. But when two of its most unlikely heroes stumble upon an enchanted, talking blade in Have Sword, Will Travel, they embark upon an adventure that will alter the courses of their lives forever—exposing them to unseen lands, unparalleled knights and unimaginable beasts, any of which could enhance or end them.

Odo, the miller’s hefty son, and Eleanor, the healer’s quick-witted daughter, have been best friends since childhood. One ordinary day, they find an ancient sword at the bottom of their nearly dried-up river. To their surprise, the sword is a magical one, and it wakes up, boldly introduces itself as Biter and knights Odo on the spot—even though Eleanor is clearly better suited for the title. Biter demands that the new Sir Odo and squire Eleanor earn their designations by taking on the task of a knight, so they suggest solving the only obvious problem they can think of: the drying-up river. Unknowingly, this leads Odo and Eleanor on a grand quest wherein they’ll need to work together with Biter to fight against and outsmart a collection of unexpected enemies who have long since lost their sense of chivalry and honor.

New York Times bestselling authors Garth Nix and Sean Williams have crafted a fun adventure tale with underlying complexity, in which our simple protagonists soon learn that their world is far more mischievous, malevolent and magical than they’d ever imagined. While simultaneously playing into many tropes of the high fantasy genre, Nix and Williams also comment on them in their own ways, making their readers reconsider everything they’d ever learned about mythical beasts and enchanted weapons.

 

Justin Barisich is a freelancer, satirist, poet and performer living in Atlanta. More of his writing can be found at littlewritingman.com.

Like its townsfolk, Lenburh is a quiet, meager place where very little ever happens. But when two of its most unlikely heroes stumble upon an enchanted, talking blade in Have Sword, Will Travel, they embark upon an adventure that will alter the courses of their lives forever.

YA FictionYA

Together they stand

Review by Justin Barisich

The small town of Prescott, Oregon, has a dark history of assault that it likes to keep hidden. But in The Nowhere Girls, three young women have had enough of the predators roaming the halls of their high school.

Grace Salter, Rosina Suarez and Erin DeLillo sit at what everybody in the Prescott High lunchroom knows is the weirdo table. Grace is the new girl who just moved to town because her preacher mom is too liberal and radical. Rosina is the queer, punk girl in a conservative, Mexican-American family. And Erin, though a genius, deals with the social struggles of her extreme Asperger’s every single day.

Together, they anonymously organize the Nowhere Girls in order to push back against the overt sexism, victim blaming, slut shaming and outright rape culture running rampant at Prescott. Their first move: withholding sex of any kind from the boys at their school. And as the Nowhere Girls continue to meet and grow in numbers, they begin to find strength in their own voices, take control of their own bodies and discover that they are far stronger and more capable than they’d ever been allowed to imagine.

Borrowing from the ancient Greek play Lysistrata, author Amy Reed crafts a powerful, moving and nuanced set of characters who experience the same abuse that far too many girls suffer. Reed’s The Nowhere Girls shows readers the power each woman possesses—and she lets her characters serve as examples of how young people can take care of each other while simultaneously demanding and effecting real change in their communities.

 

Justin Barisich is a freelancer, satirist, poet and performer living in Atlanta. More of his writing can be found at littlewritingman.com.

 

This article was originally published in the October 2017 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

The small town of Prescott, Oregon, has a dark history of assault that it likes to keep hidden. But in The Nowhere Girls, three young women have had enough of the predators roaming the halls of their high school.

Science Fiction & FantasyYA FictionYAScience Fiction

A snapshot of a world irrevocably changed

Review by Justin Barisich

The eternal beauty of science fiction is this: It takes readers to sometime or someplace else to show them the harsh truths of their own world. In Landscape with Invisible Hand, the vuvv—aliens who’ve come to Earth as benevolent colonizers—make way for humanity to destroy itself by the hand of its own greed.

High school junior Adam Costello enjoys painting landscapes of his deteriorating small town when he’s not on the clock earning his family’s sole income. For cash, he records his saccharine, 1950s-inspired dates with a girlfriend he can barely tolerate just to entertain aliens fascinated with “classic” earth culture. Because the vuvv have descended upon Earth, offering free advanced technology and medicine to the earthlings, the human economy has collapsed as a result. Now the rich hoard wealth behind massive pay walls, leaving regular people to suffer. However, when Adam’s teacher enters his paintings into an intergalactic art competition, he sees a way out. As Adam and his family flounder, he must decide what’s more important: painting pleasantries for profit or making art that captures the truth of humanity’s darkest hour.

In this novella, National Book Award winner M.T. Anderson writes a multilayered and scathing satire of callous economics, wealth disparity and the invisible hand of the market, as well as a metacritical discussion on the worth and value of art. It’s a bleak but necessary lesson in trying to find the beauty in the disastrous, all while learning to recognize when it’s time to dream a new dream.

 

Justin Barisich is a freelancer, satirist, poet and performer living in Atlanta. More of his writing can be found at littlewritingman.com.

This article was originally published in the September 2017 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

The eternal beauty of science fiction is this: It takes readers to sometime or someplace else to show them the harsh truths of their own world. In Landscape with Invisible Hand, the vuvv—aliens who’ve come to Earth as benevolent colonizers—make way for humanity to destroy itself by the hand of its own greed.

YA FictionYAHistorical Fiction

A rollicking summer adventure

Review by Justin Barisich

BookPage Teen Top Pick, July 2017

Jumping from country to country across 18th-century Europe, The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue follows a bisexual lad on a raucous adventure of self-discovery.

Henry “Monty” Montague was lucky enough to be born into one of England’s wealthy noble families, and now that he’s come of age, it’s time to make his grand tour across the Continent. It’s a year-long trip he’s assuming will be nothing but fun times, fast love and excessive libations with his biracial best friend (and secret love) Percy—until his unforgiving father saddles them with Monty’s boring sister, Felicity, and a killjoy tutor employed to keep them in line. Nevertheless, while attending a royal party in Paris, Monty insults and steals from the former prime minister, disgracing his family name.

As punishment for wasting his last chance to redeem himself, Monty and his motley crew are ordered home, but their carriage gets attacked by highwaymen with ties to the French crown. Once they escape, Monty, Percy and Felicity must learn about themselves, each other and the world around them to survive a trip that’s become far more than they bargained for.

Award-winning author Mackenzi Lee adeptly addresses vital themes in her historical novel, including women’s rights, racial biases, domestic abuse and LGBTQ struggles—issues that today’s society is still struggling with. The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue is such a stellar piece of young adult fiction that it could easily entertain the adult reader as well.

 

Justin Barisich is a freelancer, satirist, poet and performer living in Atlanta. More of his writing can be found at littlewritingman.com.

This article was originally published in the July 2017 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Jumping from country to country across 18th-century Europe, The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue follows a bisexual lad on a raucous adventure of self-discovery.

YA FictionYAHistorical Fiction

Torn between two worlds

Review by Justin Barisich

Set in feudal Japan, Flame in the Mist unveils the dark secrets of notorious families, narrates their bloody battles and follows the journey of one young woman with the power to alter the empire.

Mariko is the only daughter of the noble and prominent Hattori family. And at 17, she’s off to the imperial city to meet her future husband—the emperor’s son—for their arranged marriage. But Mariko’s caravan is attacked in the dark forest by the infamous bandits known as the Black Clan, and they slay everyone except for her—their target. Mariko manages to escape, both with her life and a newfound thirst for revenge. After tracking the Black Clan for days, Mariko disguises herself as a young farm boy and gains their trust. She’s determined to learn why they wanted her dead, find their weaknesses and destroy them from within. But she never expected the Black Clan to value her intellect or offer her the freedom she’s never had. She also didn’t expect to fall in love with a ruthless murderer.

As author Renée Ahdieh did with her debut, The Wrath & the Dawn, Flame in the Mist explores a young woman’s power and strength to effect great change in a patriarchal society. And the realistic stories, fascinating culture and complex relationships of Ahdieh’s fictional characters—explored in actual, historical settings—are completely enrapturing.

 

Justin Barisich is a freelancer, satirist, poet and performer living in Atlanta. More of his writing can be found at littlewritingman.com.

This article was originally published in the June 2017 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Set in feudal Japan, Flame in the Mist unveils the dark secrets of notorious families, narrates their bloody battles and follows the journey of one young woman with the power to alter the empire.

Children's & YAMiddle Grade

Treasure hunt in China

Review by Justin Barisich

Even when we can’t quite understand it, we know there’s a deep and special bond shared by family. In The Emperor’s Riddle, readers learn firsthand just how strong that bond can be—even with half a millennium of time, half a world of distance and half a life of wisdom separating family members.

When nearly-12-year-old Mia is dragged away from her American friends for an awkward family trip back to Fuzhou, China, the only thing that keeps her excited about her lost month of summer is hanging out with her Aunt Lin. For years, Aunt Lin has been telling Mia about their ancestors’ ties to a young emperor who ruled China more than 600 years ago and had hidden a massive treasure that no one has ever found. But now that Aunt Lin has discovered an incomplete map and a handful of riddles, she and Mia can finally solve it—together.

But when Aunt Lin suddenly goes missing, Mia must solve the emperor’s riddles and finish the map alone, no matter the cost. It’s the only thing that gives her a chance of saving her Aunt Lin.

Author Kat Zhang flexed her adept young adult literature muscles with her phenomenal The Hybrid Chronicles trilogy. Her first foray into the middle grade arena perfectly embodies that challenging period of childhood when we’re all first learning to trust ourselves—no matter our insecurities—while convincing our families to do the same.

 

Justin Barisich is a freelancer, satirist, poet and performer living in Atlanta. More of his writing can be found at littlewritingman.com.

Even when we can’t quite understand it, we know there’s a deep and special bond shared by family. In The Emperor’s Riddle, readers learn firsthand just how strong that bond can be—even with half a millennium of time, half a world of distance and half a life of wisdom separating family members.

YA NonfictionYAMemoir

Notes from the underground

Review by Justin Barisich

Here’s the most terrifying fact about a cult: Nobody has any clue what’s happened, or is still happening, inside until someone finally escapes. With The Dead Inside, Cyndy Etler reveals that dark unknown from the inside out.

As a teenager, Etler was sexually abused by her stepfather. Rather than stop it, her mother simply turned a blind eye. However, what she did always seem to notice was 14-year-old Etler’s “dangerous” and “rebellious” behavior that resulted from this abuse. So when Etler finally found solace with a few friends who were into heavy metal and occasionally experimented with weed and beer, her mother tossed her into the den of another abuser: Straight, Inc.

Drawing from her own firsthand experience of surviving 16 months inside Straight—a supposed drug rehab facility for teens—Etler spares no details. She shows readers just how the program is designed to break down troubled teens, removing any sort of spirit, personality or individuality.

Etler’s tales of her months inside Straight are nearly impossible to believe. But in The Dead Inside, she tells them so matter-of-factly that her horrors will haunt you for years to come. And hopefully, they’ll also make you more compassionate toward a “troubled” teen.

 

Justin Barisich is a freelancer, satirist, poet and performer living in Atlanta. More of his writing can be found at littlewritingman.com.

This article was originally published in the April 2017 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Here’s the most terrifying fact about a cult: Nobody has any clue what’s happened, or is still happening, inside until someone finally escapes. With The Dead Inside, Cyndy Etler reveals that dark unknown from the inside out.

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