Review by New York Times Review
EARLY ON IN "This Is Just a Test," 12-yearold David Da-Wei Horowitz decides that the official "Thing I Am Most Worried About" isn't trying to talk with Kelli Ann, a girl he has a crush on, or giving his bar mitzvah speech, but the prospect of impending nuciear annihilation. As Madelyn Rosenberg and Wendy Wan-Long Shang recall in a note at the end of their novel (their first together; each has written several others separately), "the specter of a mushroom cloud" loomed over much of the 1980s, when "This Is Just a Test" is set and its authors were in high school. Exacerbating their fears, and those of their protagonist, was the Nov. 20,1983, broadcast of "The Day After," a two-hour made-for-TV movie. It tried to portray, with unflinching realism and all the special effects the era could muster, a full-scale nuclear war between the Soviet Union and the United States, as seen through the eyes of several Kansas residents. Recent tensions with North Korea have perhaps prompted renewed interest in that TV event (neatly captured in an episode of "The Americans" last season). An estimated 100 million Americans tuned in to "The Day After," many of them gathering in homes, in schools and in churches so as not to have to absorb the film's implications alone. I was a teenager and watched with several dozen classmates. Afterward we sat in stunned silence or wept quietly as the credits rolled. In the words of one '80s critic, the movie "achieved the urgency and magnitude of live coverage of a national crisis." As Rosenberg and Shang understand, nuclear annihilation is a test to avoid, not cram for and pass. But after watching "The Day After," David lands on a touchingly ludicrous strategy to address his exploding anxieties: digging a fallout shelter with a new friend, Scott, in the field behind a housing development Scott's dad owns. Scott is the kind of popular kid who usually doesn't pay a shy nerd like David much mind. So David and his best friend, Hector, are thrilled when Scott asks to join their seventh-grade trivia team. This leads to lots of practice sessions, including a game of Trivial Pursuit, a plot development that is clearly aimed at young readers who prefer big books of fun facts to works that examine their emotional wiring. The only problem is that Scott insists they keep their big dig a secret. "I didn't even invite my own parents," he confides to David and so wants to exclude Hector and Kelli Ann. David, however, feels guilty about abandoning his best friend to nuclear fallout and doesn't want to give up on his fantasies of spending some quality time in close quarters with Kelli Ann in doomsday's aftermath. In his mind, that's more plausible than working up the courage to talk to her. At home, he is also contending with two superpowers: his grandmothers. The paternal one is Jewish, the maternal one Chinese, and they are battling for David's cultural allegiance. The women argue over everything from what food to serve at Thanksgiving to whether Da-Wei will appear as part of David's name on his bar mitzvah invitation. David just wants to duck and cover. For a book about the possible end of the world, Rosenberg and Shang keep the tone surprisingly light (though parents should know curious kids can easily find "The Day After," which remains disturbing viewing, on YouTube). The dialogue is snappy and the plot fast-paced, especially once we begin to worry about the physical survival of one character. The authors touch gently on issues of cultural assimilation. At one point, David becomes so tongue-tied with Kelli Ann, he sees some Christmas decorations and blurts out he's making a pine-cone wreath. "'Cause we're Jewish," his older sister, Lauren, wickedly chimes in. But the book also makes a few odd choices. The authors refer to the grandmother speaking "Chinese" instead of Mandarin. In time, the family's rabbi senses David's distress and helps him start to address all his divided loyalties - but not before he risks irreparable damage to at least one cherished relationship. Throughout, Rosenberg and Shang dot their narrative with proper nouns: Trapper Keepers, Bac-0 bits, "Let's Dance," Boy George, Atari, "Green Acres," Walkmen. Many teen films, of course, plumb Boomer or Gen-X nostalgia to attract a broad audience. But "This Is Just a Test" is not a movie or the kind of book parents are likely to read to their kids. So why all the Reagan-era references? The book is itself a kind of game of Trivial Pursuit, and tweens and even teenagers will likely enjoy teasing out historical information, the way David and his friends do in their trivia contests. (Kids who like "South Park," for example, will recall Cartman's Dawson's Creek Trapper Keeper Ultra Keeper Futura S 2000.) Just don't ask about "parachute pants." These are best left in time's unbreachable vault, lest horrific forces of parental embarrassment be unleashed. SARA MOSLE, a schoolteacher for many years, has written about educationfor The New York Times, The Atlantic, Slate and other publications.
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [August 27, 2017]
Review by Booklist Review
David finds his seventh-grade year worrisome in so many ways. Who can teach him how to talk to girls? When will he finally get his long-expected growth spurt? Can his bar mitzvah satisfy both his grandmothers (one Jewish, one Chinese), whose rivalry is long-standing? Will hanging out with popular Scott raise his social status at school above dork level? Is that worth hurting his best friend since second grade? Is nuclear war imminent? Will digging a bomb shelter save him? Set in 1983 to 1984, the novel weaves plot elements together smoothly while incorporating realistic period details. The first-person narrative engages readers with David's candid reflections as well as his droll telling of events, such as the memorably catastrophic Thanksgiving dinner featuring skillful verbal sparring between the grandmothers and a guest who starts out happy to join the family's East-meets-West feast but flees before dessert is served. An appealing historical novel, even for readers resistant to the genre. In a heartening appended note, the authors reflect that each generation deals with its own overarching threat. --Phelan, Carolyn Copyright 2017 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
In this sensitively written story from Rosenberg (Nanny X) and Shang (The Way Home Looks Now), 12-year-old David is torn between two identities and two friends, and since it's the Reagan-era '80s he's also terrified of nuclear war. David's Chinese and Jewish grandmothers have uprooted themselves to be closer to David and his sister, and both women vie to make their culture the dominant one in the house. At school, David jumps at the chance to learn how to be smooth around girls from popular student Scott. David's best friend Hector rounds out a trivia team that Scott and David form, but Hector's uncool tendencies (such as his repeated references to old movies) lead David to leave Hector out of Scott's new project: digging a fallout shelter. David is also preparing for his bar mitzvah, a journey filled with humor, emotional depth, and important realizations about what it means to be a friend and to embrace multiple cultures. His struggle to make sense of the Cold War will resonate with readers grappling with a confusing political climate themselves. Ages 8-12. Agent: (for Shang) Tracey Adams, Adams Literary; (for Rosenberg) Susan Cohen, Writers House. (June) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 4-8-It's 1983, and David's got worries: his impending bar mitzvah, his constantly competing Chinese and Jewish grandmothers, the cute girl who makes him nervous, and his popular new friend, who dislikes David's longtime best friend-plus, it's the height of the Cold War, and nuclear annihilation could hit at any second. David's lightly anxious tone; the progressively funny handful of short, dialogue-based scenes per chapter; the realistically kooky family members; and the 1980s middle-class suburban setting are so strongly reminiscent of Judy Blume's "Fudge" books that a well-versed reader might accidentally refer to the protagonist as "Peter." The authors cram in a lot of 1980s references (David Hasselhoff, Betamax). It's refreshing to meet a male protagonist who, like Tara in Paula Freedman's My Basmati Bat Mitzvah, is struggling with how to be authentically Jewish in a bicultural family. VERDICT Giggle-inducing, light, and charmingly realistic fiction that will resonate with a wide variety of readers.-Rhona Campbell, Georgetown Day School, Washington, DC © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
David Da-Wei Horowitz (who is Jewish and Chinese) is preparing for his January 1984 bar mitzvah. But reading Torah "in front of about a zillion people" is the least of his problems considering the arguing between his culturally different grandmothers, drama in his middle-school friend group, and the real possibility of nuclear war. A realistic coming-of-age novel filled with witty yet sensitive cultural observations. (c) Copyright 2018. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
In the months leading up to his bar mitzvah, David Da-Wei Horowitz deals with a host of middle school crises, from bickering grandmas and trouble talking to his crush to fearing the possibility of nuclear fallout. It's autumn 1983 in northern Virginia, and seventh-grader David Horowitz, who is Chinese and Jewish, is busy preparing for Jan. 21, 1984: when he's "being bar mitzvahed in front of about a zillion people." But that's only if he lives that long, considering that after watching The Day After, he's worried about what will happen if there's a nuclear holocaust. David's growing friendship with cool-kid Scott, a white boy, revolves around their school trivia team and their secret project: digging a fallout shelter. Meanwhile, at home, David's grandmothersWai Po, who lives with them, and Granny M, who lives next doorseem constantly on the verge of starting World War III themselves, bickering over whose culture should take precedence in David's and his younger sister's lives. David is a lovable intersectional protagonist, and the authors imbue his story with period-appropriate details, such as the novelty of divorced parents and Cold War fear. There's a lot to enjoy, but it's David's relationships with his two grandmothers that steal the show, especially when the rivals eventually unite to teach him he's not "half of each" but "all of both." A nostalgic and heartwarming period coming-of-age comedy. (author's note) (Historical fiction. 8-12) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
