Skip to main content

Fighting Words

Image
By
Fighting Words
By Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
New York: Dial Books for Young Readers, 2020. Fiction.

Della has always known she could count on her older sister Suki. Suki kept her safe when their mother was incarcerated and the two girls were left with her long haul truck driver boyfriend Clifton. Five years later, when Suki walks in on Clifton abusing Della, she acts fast to get the two of them out of the house and to safety. Now, the two sisters are in a foster home awaiting Clifton's trial and learning to live with their foster mother Francine. As Della starts to settle into their new life -- making friends, enjoying the safety of life with Francine, and standing up to a physical bully -- Suki starts unravel, being increasingly plagued by nightmares and a mental health decline that results in her attempted suicide. Now Della and Suki are left to learn to speak up and trust that others will help them, even if they aren't sure anyone wants to hear what they have to say.

This book deals with a lot of big, difficult subjects and is best for more mature readers and for young readers to read with a trusted adult. Even so, this is a remarkably raw and hopeful book that provides an essential mirror and window into horrors that are experienced by many young people. 10-year-old Della is a humorous and engaging narrator, alerting readers to the harder parts of her story while pulling no punches. Della, Suki, and Francine are likable characters that lighten up an otherwise dark story, and readers will root for Della and Suki to succeed on every page. Despite its blunt honesty, Fighting Words ultimately ends on a hopeful, even happy, note. This is a powerful and important novel.


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review: Alice with a Why

By
Alice with a Why By Anna James New York: Penguin, 2026. Fiction. 240 pgs. In 1919, in the aftermath of the first World War, Alyce is living with her grandmother in the English countryside. Her grandmother, also named Alice, tells Alyce (with a y) stories from her childhood adventures in a wonderful land filled with white rabbits and mad hatters. Alyce doesn't really believe the silly stories, she just misses her father who was killed in the war. One day, Alyce receives a mysterious invitation to tea, and subsequently falls into a pond where she is transported to Wonderland. Her grandmother, of course, is that Alice. Alyce is prompted by the Mad Hatter, Dormouse, and March Hare to seek out the Time Being and put an end to the war between the Sun King and the Queen of the Moon. Thus begins Alyce's adventure through Wonderland. I have a certain soft spot for the original story of Alice in Wonderland. It is one of my particular favorites and I often have a hard time reading new int...
Post a Comment
Read more

Review: A Strange Thing Happened in Cherry Hall

By
A Strange Thing Happened in Cherry Hall By Jasmine Warga New York: Harper, 2024. Fiction. 211 pages. A painting has been stolen from the Penelope L. Brooks Museum and sixth-grader Rami Ahmed is worried he's the main suspect. His mother works at the museum as the lead custodian and Rami spends a lot of time hanging out at the museum while she works. On the day the painting went missing, the only people there were the security guard Ed, the cleaning crew, and Rami. Then, a mysterious girl appears in the museum. She floats around from room to room and only Rami can see her -- and she looks exactly like the girl from the missing painting. To prove his innocence and help figure out who the floating girl is, Rami partners up with an aspiring sleuth at school named Veda and the two dive into unexpected situations as they try to solve the mystery. This is a cozy mystery that is focused mostly on characters and ambiance and only a little on the mystery itself. Don't read this book if yo...
Post a Comment
Read more

Review: The Factory

By
The Factory By Catherine Egan New York, NY : Scholastic Inc., 2025. Fiction. 306 pages.  Thirteen-year-old Asher Doyle has been invited to join the Factory, a secretive research facility in the desert which ostensibly extracts renewable energy from the electromagnetic fields of its young recruits. But Asher soon realizes something sinister is going on. Kids are getting sick. The adults who run the Factory seem to be keeping secrets. And the extraction process is not only painful and exhausting, but existentially troubling. Asher makes a handful of new friends who help him with an investigation that turns into a resistance, which turns into...a cliffhanger! The Factory is a page-turning sci-fi with multidimensional characters, an intriguing plot, and refreshingly straight-forward writing. Egan weaves in detail about climate crises and social unrest, making the story's dystopian setting feel rich and plausible. With its sophisticated themes and accessible storytelling, I would recomm...
Post a Comment
Read more