Before We Go Extinct

April 1, 2016
A summer with his estranged father on an island in the Pacific Northwest helps JC come to grips with his best friend's death. JC is a scholarship student at a Brooklyn high school, surrounded by children of the rich and famous. His love of sharks earns him the nickname Sharkboy, to which The King adds Great White because of his race. The two tempt fate with adrenaline-filled skateboarding and parcours moves: "It felt like infinity would feel if it could be a feeling." When The King falls from the 42nd floor of a building, JC's anguish turns inward, and he stops talking. He sends brief, off-putting text responses in French to his remaining close friend, Daff. He pours his heart out to her in longer, unsent text messages. These, as well as messages to The King, function as a journal that explores the complicated bond among the three. Race is a secondary factor here: The King is identified as African-American; Daff's race is only hinted at. More important is the personal journey JC takes to reconnect with his father, make new friends, and recapture his sense of self along with his voice. The author skillfully pulls together the disparate parts of JC's life through his deeply felt, sometimes humorous, first-person narration. JC's voice, spoken and unspoken, rings with a note of authenticity. (Fiction. 12-17)

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June 1, 2016

Gr 7 Up-JC (aka Sharky) stopped speaking after he witnessed the death of his best friend, The King, in what may have been a suicide or an accidental fall off the 42nd story of his father's unfinished Manhattan high-rise. Sent to live with his distant hippie father on a mostly deserted Vancouver island for the summer, JC continues to withdraw, texting his dead best friend and attempting to ignore the entreaties of their other best friend, Daff; Daff's and The King's mutual growing attraction may have been an impetus for The King's death. JC turns to diving, exploring the underwater world among the islands, prompting him to want to talk again. Ruminating on his grief and reliving the events leading up to The King's death, the protagonist begins to open himself up to others with the help of the enigmatic Kelby, his father's girlfriend's daughter, and her younger brother Charlie. While the plot feels familiar, the story's strength lies in JC's thoughtful, honest contemplation of his grief. Secondary characters also add emotional depth to his story, if not their own subplots. VERDICT Purchase for collections in need of realistic fiction, especially involving death or suicide.-Hillary St. George, Los Angeles Public Library

Copyright 2016 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 15, 2016
Grades 9-12 The King's death was an accident, and shark-obsessed J.C.or Sharkyknows it. He was, after all, the tragedy's only witness. He just can't tell anyone; watching his best friend plummet from the forty-second floor of an unfinished skyscraper has rendered him, quite literally, speechless. Ever since that fateful afternoon, J.C. has doggedly dodged his mom's anxious inquiries, as well as the persistent pleas of his former confidant, Daff. He instead communicates solely through text messages, sending most updates (filtered photos, hashtagged slogans) directly to the King himself. When J.C.'s mother, a reality-TV makeup artist, accepts a traveling summer gig, J.C. is further displacedshipped off to his dad on a remote island in the Salish Sea. The book unfolds through J.C.'s stream of consciousness, resurfacing memories, and a series of unsent e-mails and text messages. While this format ultimately limits dialogue and, consequently, the satisfying development of peripheral characters, teens with a yen for melodrama will relate to classic themes of grief and isolation.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)