Spoils

January 1, 2014

Gr 7 Up-In this stand-alone companion to Kindred (Knopf, 2011), Leni's family is in trouble. Several years ago they won 22 million dollars in the lottery, but now it has all been spent, except for the million dollar trust fund that Leni will receive when she turns 18 in a few days. She can tell that her parents expect her to give them the money, but as she watches how they spend in anticipation of the windfall, she worries that she really can't solve their problems. Her deeply troubled older sister blames herself for all that is wrong with the family and warns Leni to get rid of the money. An angel named Michael appears and tells Leni to "Fix it." She must figure out what "it" is that she's supposed to fix. Stein's strong writing and well-drawn characters make this titles one of those novels that seem to have it all: a little romance, intrigue, both an angel and a devil, family disaster and love, a strong female character, and a fast -moving, smooth plot. Subtlely infused themes of being careful what you wish for and that money can't buy happiness give the novel an added intensity. The thoughts of characters not directly related to the main plot who dream of how an infusion of money would solve their problems add depth to the story. A satisfying read.-Janet Hilbun, Texas Women's University, Denton, TX

Copyright 2014 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 1, 2013
Grades 7-10 What would you do if your family won millions in the lottery when you were a kid and now all that's left after their extravagant spending is what's held in trust for you until your eighteenth birthdaywhich is next week? Stein, masterful author of complex teen novels in which ethics and Judaism are essential components, proves herself once again in this companion to Kindred (2011). Floridian Leni is a bit younger than Stein's typical post-high-school protagonists, but she is astute, anguished by her older sister's news that the lottery was rigged, and just the right character to lend credibility to her discovery of evil at the root of the mess surrounding her family and an angel to help her through it. Romance, money, and mysticism are woven into a satisfying tale.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)

January 1, 2014
Leni's family has blown through nearly all of its seventy-million-dollar lottery winnings. Now Leni is faced with a dilemma: bail out her parents or put her trust fund to philanthropic use. Things get even more complicated after a violent encounter with archangel Michael. Stein (Kindred) keeps readers off balance in a contemporary world complete with old-school biblical justice.

(Copyright 2014 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

January 1, 2014
This companion book to Kindred (rev. 3/11) features another teen protagonist who has a similarly unexpected (and unpleasant) touched-by-an-angel encounter. When Leni was eleven, her family won seventy million dollars in the lottery. Now, almost seven years later, they've recklessly blown through nearly all the money. It hasn't been entirely single-minded selfishness: they paid for a child's cancer treatment and for a lawyer for one of Leni's classmates, Gavin. Now Leni is faced with a dilemma: bail out her parents with the money in her trust fund, or put it to philanthropic use. Things get even more complicated after archangel Michael (whose colleague Raphael struck a similar blow to Kindred 's Miriam) violently entreats Leni to "fix it!" Then her tormented older sister Natasha, heartsick over a breakup (with Emmett, who was Miriam's love interest in Kindred ), confesses to a deal with the devil. Stein keeps readers off balance in a contemporary world complete with old-school biblical justice; these archangels are far from benevolent harp-strummers. Leni is fairly angelic in the typical sense, but each of the supporting characters harbors elements of both good and evil in his or her soul. Undefined as some of their transgressions are--Stein never spells out exactly what Natasha did or why Gavin was set up, for example--Leni's parents, brother, sister, and beau have all danced with the devil and paid the price. elissa gershowitz

(Copyright 2014 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)