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MAKING FRIENDS WITH BILLY WONG

Even though this is mostly Azalea’s tale, it’s a refreshing novel inspired by real-life Chinese-American communities not...

It’s 1952, and Azalea Ann Morgan, an 11-year-old white girl, doesn’t want to leave Texas and help Grandma Clark, who hurt her foot and lives in Paris Junction, Arkansas.

Worse, Mama appears dead set on leaving fast before dropping off Azalea with the grandmother Azalea barely knows and whose enormous garden will need serious tending. The last thing Azalea wants is to talk to strangers. And Paris Junction seems to be full of them. Right off the bat, Azalea sees someone she’s never seen before: a Chinese-American boy in a tree waving to her. The boy is Billy Wong, a budding reporter, whose family owns Lucky Foods, the only grocery store in town. Grandma Clark claims they can be friends, but Azalea has doubts. How she can become friends with someone from China? Can he even speak English? As garden helpers arrive, Azalea must interact with more strangers, including the town troublemaker. Despite their different backgrounds (and as the title suggests), a tender friendship between Azalea and Billy develops. Writing in alternating prose and verse voices for Azalea and Billy, respectively, Scattergood paints an honest portrait of two young characters dealing with quick judgments, prejudice, and racism. Azalea’s voice feels the more developed of the two and dominates the story. What’s needed are more insights from Billy and his unique perspective on this historical setting.

Even though this is mostly Azalea’s tale, it’s a refreshing novel inspired by real-life Chinese-American communities not often seen in stories. (author’s note) (Historical fiction. 8-12)

Pub Date: Aug. 30, 2016

ISBN: 978-0-545-92425-2

Page Count: 224

Publisher: Scholastic

Review Posted Online: May 31, 2016

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2016

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WRECKING BALL

From the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series , Vol. 14

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

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THE MILLICENT QUIBB SCHOOL OF ETIQUETTE FOR YOUNG LADIES OF MAD SCIENCE

Fiercely feisty and unapologetically goofy.

Three young girls are tasked with saving their town from a vicious worm.

This romp from actor McKinnon introduces the three Porch girls: Gertrude, age 12 and three-quarters, Eugenia, age 12 and one-eighth, and Dee-Dee, age 11. Cared for by Aunt Desdemona and Uncle Ansel (along with their seven cousins, who are all named Lavinia), they’re forced to live in a ramshackle shed at the edge of the property. In a classic turn of events, the sisters are invited to a new school run by a certain Millicent Quibb. Under Quibb’s eccentric tutelage, the trio learn that the nefarious Krenetics Research Association, hoping to release their founder, Talon Sharktūth, from his vault, has bred a Kyrgalops, a vicious stone- and puppy-chomping worm, which may destroy their entire town. McKinnon’s middle-grade debut is grandiosely silly, reminiscent of Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events in both its sesquipedalian language and tone and in relying heavily on its bespoke lexicon, verbal gymnastics, and cheeky footnotes to deliver jokes. Interspersed throughout are bits of visual interest—poems and songs, schematics, and bits of correspondence. Though the action rockets along at a Pixy Stix–fueled pace, many questions are left unanswered or unaddressed, making this series opener exposition heavy and a bit frustrating. Still, readers will ultimately be left hopeful that subsequent volumes will offer something meatier. The illustrations cue some diversity of skin tone among the characters.

Fiercely feisty and unapologetically goofy. (map, afterword, appendices) (Adventure. 8-12)

Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2024

ISBN: 9780316554732

Page Count: 256

Publisher: Little, Brown

Review Posted Online: July 19, 2024

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2024

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