Sweet and full of heart.
When his mom lands a new job, Héctor Muñoz leaves San Francisco—and his best friends and beloved neighborhood—for a town near Sacramento.
The Mexican American 12-year-old starts Orangevale Middle School with optimism, hopeful that new friends will appreciate his flair for fashion and confident that he will find fellow musical theater–obsessed peers. His optimism wanes when he finds out there is no drama club or theater program; Ms. Heath, the head of school security, seems to have targeted him for harsh discipline; and the Table of Misfits, a ragtag group of outsiders, is the only place for him to sit at lunch. Matters get worse when Mike, a relentlessly homophobic bully, and his so-called Minions target Héctor. When a janitor’s closet magically appears whenever and wherever Héctor most needs to hide, he finds a respite from the bullying. The room not only offers him safety, it also connects him to other outsiders who find their ways there from their own schools when they need escape: Black and Chinese Juliana from South Carolina and Filipino and White Sal from Arizona. With compassion and humor, Oshiro creates a fantastical scenario that holds deeper implications for three outsiders who face struggles as queer and biracial youths. Reading this heartwarming blend of realistic fiction and fantasy, young people will appreciate Héctor’s brave and earnest quest for happiness and belonging set among a richly diverse cast of characters.
Sweet and full of heart. (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 21, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-06-300810-6
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often...
A successful juvenile by the beloved New Yorker writer portrays a farm episode with an imaginative twist that makes a poignant, humorous story of a pig, a spider and a little girl.
Young Fern Arable pleads for the life of runt piglet Wilbur and gets her father to sell him to a neighbor, Mr. Zuckerman. Daily, Fern visits the Zuckermans to sit and muse with Wilbur and with the clever pen spider Charlotte, who befriends him when he is lonely and downcast. At the news of Wilbur's forthcoming slaughter, campaigning Charlotte, to the astonishment of people for miles around, spins words in her web. "Some Pig" comes first. Then "Terrific"—then "Radiant". The last word, when Wilbur is about to win a show prize and Charlotte is about to die from building her egg sac, is "Humble". And as the wonderful Charlotte does die, the sadness is tempered by the promise of more spiders next spring.
The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often informative as amusing, and the whole tenor of appealing wit and pathos will make fine entertainment for reading aloud, too.Pub Date: Oct. 15, 1952
ISBN: 978-0-06-026385-0
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1952
PERSPECTIVES
SEEN & HEARD
Telgemeier’s bold colors, superior visual storytelling, and unusual subject matter will keep readers emotionally engaged and...
Catrina narrates the story of her mixed-race (Latino/white) family’s move from Southern California to Bahía de la Luna on the Northern California coast.
Dad has a new job, but it’s little sister Maya’s lungs that motivate the move: she has had cystic fibrosis since birth—a degenerative breathing condition. Despite her health, Maya loves adventure, even if her lungs suffer for it and even when Cat must follow to keep her safe. When Carlos, a tall, brown, and handsome teen Ghost Tour guide introduces the sisters to the Bahía ghosts—most of whom were Spanish-speaking Mexicans when alive—they fascinate Maya and she them, but the terrified Cat wants only to get herself and Maya back to safety. When the ghost adventure leads to Maya’s hospitalization, Cat blames both herself and Carlos, which makes seeing him at school difficult. As Cat awakens to the meaning of Halloween and Day of the Dead in this strange new home, she comes to understand the importance of the ghosts both to herself and to Maya. Telgemeier neatly balances enough issues that a lesser artist would split them into separate stories and delivers as much delight textually as visually. The backmatter includes snippets from Telgemeier’s sketchbook and a photo of her in Día makeup.
Telgemeier’s bold colors, superior visual storytelling, and unusual subject matter will keep readers emotionally engaged and unable to put down this compelling tale. (Graphic fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 13, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-545-54061-2
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: July 1, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2016
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