[Paper Stars 01.0] Nora & Kettle

Read [Paper Stars 01.0] Nora & Kettle Storyline:

2017 IPPY Book Awards Winner!
A “remarkable” (Booklist Magazine) reimagining of Peter Pan.
After World War II, orphaned Kettle faces prejudice as a Japanese American but manages to scrape by and care for his makeshift family of homeless children. When he crosses paths with the privileged but traumatized Nora, both of their lives are forever changed...
Lauren Nicolle Taylor’s Nora & Kettle is a heart-wrenching historical fiction novel that will appeal to fans of books by John Green and Ned Vizzini, novels such as The Perks of Being a Wallflower, The Beginning of Everything, Eleanor & Park, The Book Thief, and classics like The Great Gatsby and The Catcher in the Rye.
**From School Library Journal
Gr 9 Up-Set in the 1950s, this book is told in the alternating voices of Nora, an upper-class teen struggling to protect her younger sister from their abusive father, and Kettle, a biracial homeless teen persecuted for being Japanese, caring for his makeshift homeless family. The two cross paths repeatedly without realizing until they meet late in the novel and discover they just might be the missing family they each didn't know they were searching for. This is a commendable attempt to present the persecution of Japanese Americans. However, the story's flaws outweigh its noble intentions. Both teen voices are expressed in the same adult tone, and the prose lacks the necessary sense of time and place. Many of the obstacles, such as Kettle's pursuit of work on the docks and Nora's ability to quickly adapt to hard physical labor after living a privileged existence, are easily resolved. VERDICT Pass on this historical fiction title for Kevin C. Pyle's Take What You Can Carry (Macmillan, 2012) or Jeanne Houston's Farewell to Manzanar (HMH, 2002).-Hillary St. George, Los Angeles Public Libraryα(c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review
World War II is over, but community feelings toward Japanese Americans still run high, and two very different teens are struggling to live in the aftermath. Seventeen-year-old Kettle has been an orphan living on the streets for years, working the docks when he can and trying to care for other street children alongside his brother, Kin. Nora, on the other hand, is the daughter of a wealthy, big-name civil rights lawyer, but that does not protect her from his violent beatings behind closed doors. Existing side by side without knowing it, Kettle and Nora's paths cross one night, and suddenly everything changes. Lyrically written, this powerful and at times painful read captures the reader and does not let go. Told in alternating chapters from the two characters' perspectives, their respective narratives cross and intertwine, drawing Nora and Kettle closer until they finally unite. Parallels to Peter Pan and Wendy provide motif and depth without overwhelming the reader. Firmly rooted in the history of internment camps and racial prejudice, this remarkable novel educates subtly while focusing on themes of home, acceptance, courage, and the danger of secrets. -- Melissa Moore
(Booklist Starred Review)