Middle-sister awkwardness turns into aplomb for ten-year-old Stevie, sandwiched between 12-year-old Alex and eight-year-old Joey. Despite their differing interests and personalities, the three sisters have a special bond, referring to themselves as a club, holding meetings, play dates and sleepovers in each other’s rooms. Stevie gingerly views her role in this theatrically oriented family with growing responsibility and confidence as she and her sisters explore dramatic playacting, cooking disasters and budding boyfriend interests (or not). Joey’s handwritten reports, poems and letters to her sock monkey and Alex’s typed scripts and essays punctuate Stevie’s engaging first-person narration; Consolazio’s illustrations add to the fun. McDonald deftly introduces a new set of witty, amiable characters with whom tweens will easily identify. Engaging dialogue and some laugh-out-loud moments will leave readers hoping for another installment. (Fiction. 8-10)
Pub Date: April 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-7636-3251-9
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2008
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
There is something profoundly elemental going on in Smalls’s book: the capturing of a moment of unmediated joy. It’s not melodramatic, but just a Saturday in which an African-American father and son immerse themselves in each other’s company when the woman of the house is away. Putting first things first, they tidy up the house, with an unheralded sense of purpose motivating their actions: “Then we clean, clean, clean the windows,/wipe, wipe, wash them right./My dad shines in the windows’ light.” When their work is done, they head for the park for some batting practice, then to the movies where the boy gets to choose between films. After a snack, they work their way homeward, racing each other, doing a dance step or two, then “Dad takes my hand and slows down./I understand, and we slow down./It’s a long, long walk./We have a quiet talk and smile.” Smalls treats the material without pretense, leaving it guileless and thus accessible to readers. Hays’s artwork is wistful and idyllic, just as this day is for one small boy. (Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: April 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-316-79899-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1999
PLB 0-517-70967-8 Me And My Family Tree (32 pp.; $13.00; PLB $14.99; May; 0-517-70966-X; PLB 0-517-70967-8): For children who are naturally curious about the people who care for them (most make inquiries into family relationships at an early age), Sweeney explains, with the assistance of a young narrator, the concept of a family tree. Photographs become understandable once the young girl learns the relationships among family members; she wonders what her own family tree will look like when she marries and has children. A larger message comes at the end of this story: not only does she have a family tree, but so does everyone in the world. Cable’s drawings clearly define the process of creating a family tree; she provides a blank tree so children can start on their own geneaology.(Picture book. 5-7)
Pub Date: May 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-517-70966-X
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 1999
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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