Entertaining and satisfying.
Being a middle child is challenging, especially in a very large family.
Summer is almost over, and 10-year-old Marina Ali-O’Connor has successfully avoided going out on her family’s boats the whole time. All that’s left is the Labor Day parade in which all the boats in Sunrise Lagoon get decked out in lights. Marina’s moms, concerned about her odd behavior, get her to promise to join that event. Even though she’s been on them her entire life and Mom is an expert boater, Marina knows the statistics: Boats are dangerous. Plus, there’s no one to look out for her if something goes wrong. Her two older sisters, one adopted and one biological from a previous marriage, are glued to Mom’s side, obsessed with her boat business. Her two younger siblings, the twins, demand Mama’s attention, with the added wrinkle that they’re her biological kids. Meanwhile, Marina doesn’t have anyone to cling to or even know much about her background. Mom and her older sisters are White; Mama and the twins are part Syrian (the rest of their ancestry is unspecified), but Marina only knows that her birth mother was Mexican. A new neighbor Marina’s age proposes an idea: make Marina someone’s favorite in her family so she’ll have a safety net. This second series installment focuses on symptoms of severe anxiety emerging within a loving support network. Readers will appreciate the boisterous family dynamics and thoughtful treatment of mental health concerns.
Entertaining and satisfying. (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: May 9, 2023
ISBN: 9781643753119
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Algonquin
Review Posted Online: Feb. 7, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs.
The Heffley family’s house undergoes a disastrous attempt at home improvement.
When Great Aunt Reba dies, she leaves some money to the family. Greg’s mom calls a family meeting to determine what to do with their share, proposing home improvements and then overruling the family’s cartoonish wish lists and instead pushing for an addition to the kitchen. Before bringing in the construction crew, the Heffleys attempt to do minor maintenance and repairs themselves—during which Greg fails at the work in various slapstick scenes. Once the professionals are brought in, the problems keep getting worse: angry neighbors, terrifying problems in walls, and—most serious—civil permitting issues that put the kibosh on what work’s been done. Left with only enough inheritance to patch and repair the exterior of the house—and with the school’s dismal standardized test scores as a final straw—Greg’s mom steers the family toward moving, opening up house-hunting and house-selling storylines (and devastating loyal Rowley, who doesn’t want to lose his best friend). While Greg’s positive about the move, he’s not completely uncaring about Rowley’s action. (And of course, Greg himself is not as unaffected as he wishes.) The gags include effectively placed callbacks to seemingly incidental events (the “stress lizard” brought in on testing day is particularly funny) and a lampoon of after-school-special–style problem books. Just when it seems that the Heffleys really will move, a new sequence of chaotic trouble and property destruction heralds a return to the status quo. Whew.
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs. (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 8-12)Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3903-3
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Nov. 18, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
Not the most satisfying wrap-up, but it’s always good to spend time in the world of this series.
Beloved gorilla Ivan becomes a father to rambunctious twins in this finale to a quartet that began with 2012’s Newbery Award–winning The One and Only Ivan.
Life hasn’t always been easy for silverback gorilla Ivan, who’s spent most of his life being mistreated in captivity. Now he’s living in a wildlife sanctuary, but he still gets to see his two best friends. Young elephant Ruby lives in the grassy habitat next door, and former stray dog Bob has a home with one of the zookeepers. All three were rescued from the Exit 8 Big Top Mall and Video Arcade. Ivan’s expanded world includes fellow gorilla Kinyani—the two are about to become parents, and Ivan is revisiting the traumas of his past in light of what he wants the twins to know. When the subject inevitably comes up, Applegate’s trust and respect for readers is evident. She doesn’t shy away from hard truths as Ivan wrestles with the fact that poachers killed his family. Readers will need the context provided by knowledge of the earlier books to feel the full emotional impact of this story. The rushed ending unfortunately falls flat, detracting from the central message that a complex life can still contain hope. Final art not seen.
Not the most satisfying wrap-up, but it’s always good to spend time in the world of this series. (gorilla games, glossary, author’s note) (Verse fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: May 7, 2024
ISBN: 9780063221123
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: March 9, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2024
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