Sofia Christina Savea shares what life is like during times of political unrest in 1970s Wellington, New Zealand.Through diary entries, readers are introduced to vibrant Sofia, who is growing up biracial-pālagi (White) and Samoan-as she turns 13 and starts to consider the shifting world around her. Protests against dawn raids, as police hunt for Pacific Islanders who have overstayed their visas, and activism to encourage Māori land and language reclamation start to frame her perspectives around equality. Sofia's developing awareness bridges her transition to becoming a teenager as she takes on a job to be able to buy her own things but also contributes to her family's financial well-being. She is invited into conversations around civil rights in her community, particularly through her family's involvement with the Polynesian Panthers, modeled after the Black Panthers. Vaeluaga Smith skillfully balances the joy Sofia experiences when she tastes McDonald's for the first time or is learning Māori songs and games with thoughtful considerations of state violence against Pacific Islanders and how it intimately affects her family and friends. The accessible language allows space for Sofia, and readers, to tip in and out of complex ideas and politics that hold present-day relevance. Hunkin's charming illustrations provide visual insight into the world presented so vividly in the text. A comprehensive historical note presents real-life heroes whose humanity is well-emphasized through the diary format.Well crafted and wonderfully fresh. (historical note, glossary, bibliography) (Historical fiction. 8-12)

Thirteen-year-old Sofia lives with her family in a small New Zealand town. In diary entries, she chronicles her day-to-day experiences: her younger brothers' multiple trips to the emergency room, the result of "stupid" accidents; her development as a writer and participation in a public-speaking contest; and her older brother's growing involvement with the Polynesian Panthers. Set in 1976, Smith spotlights an era characterized by both a resurgence of Maori culture and early morning sweeps of Pacific Islander residents suspected of "overstaying" their visas. The raid on Sofia's extended family (her father is from Samoa) results in violence, incarceration, and much fear, despite the fact that all those arrested are New Zealand citizens. The Panthers (like their U.S. namesakes) provide legal assistance, school tutoring, and hot meals, and aid in Sofia's growing understanding of human rights. Lighter moments are also noted, especially Sofia's love of go-go boots and the job she gets in order to afford them. An illuminating look at racism down under; Kiwi expressions and history are explained in the generous back matter.

At age twelve, Sofia is beyond excited when the first McDonald's restaurant opens in New Zealand, and she records her delight in her diary. Over the next six months, she uses the diary to record family mishaps, her love of go-go boots, and her growing awareness of politics and human rights abuses. It is 1976, and the New Zealand government is cracking down on "overstayers," immigrants who came for work at the encouragement of the government but stayed after their visas expired. Sofia's dad is Samoan and her mom Pkeh (a New Zealander of European descent), but it is not until her older brother joins the Polynesian Panthers that Sofia learns about rights abuses targeting Indigenous families. Early in the novel, Sofia writes a school assignment, a speech about herself, and she is selected to represent the school in a district-wide contest; the novel closes as Sofia gives her competition speech and, through it, spells out her own growth as an activist. New Zealand history and the Dawn Raids will be unfamiliar to most American readers, so the diary format works well -- Sofia writes about what she learns as she learns it, providing readers with the necessary historical information. Smith, of Pacific Islander, Scottish, and Irish heritage, authentically describes the culture of a mixed-race New Zealander, filling the book with details of language, customs, and food. Hunkin's lively line drawings throughout help set the novel in the 1970s (would contemporary readers be able to picture the much-coveted go-go boots without art?). Maeve Visser Knoth

Sofia Christina Savea shares what life is like during times of political unrest in 1970s Wellington, New Zealand.Through diary entries, readers are introduced to vibrant Sofia, who is growing up biracial-pālagi (White) and Samoan-as she turns 13 and starts to consider the shifting world around her. Protests against dawn raids, as police hunt for Pacific Islanders who have overstayed their visas, and activism to encourage Māori land and language reclamation start to frame her perspectives around equality. Sofia's developing awareness bridges her transition to becoming a teenager as she takes on a job to be able to buy her own things but also contributes to her family's financial well-being. She is invited into conversations around civil rights in her community, particularly through her family's involvement with the Polynesian Panthers, modeled after the Black Panthers. Vaeluaga Smith skillfully balances the joy Sofia experiences when she tastes McDonald's for the first time or is learning Māori songs and games with thoughtful considerations of state violence against Pacific Islanders and how it intimately affects her family and friends. The accessible language allows space for Sofia, and readers, to tip in and out of complex ideas and politics that hold present-day relevance. Hunkin's charming illustrations provide visual insight into the world presented so vividly in the text. A comprehensive historical note presents real-life heroes whose humanity is well-emphasized through the diary format.Well crafted and wonderfully fresh. (historical note, glossary, bibliography) (Historical fiction. 8-12)