Another upbeat, modern school story sure to please fans and teachers.
There’s no such thing as too much reading…until it gets you in trouble.
Sixth-grader Alec loves to read. For the past five years he has been sent to principal Mrs. Vance’s office multiple times for reading instead of paying attention in class. As sixth grade starts, Mrs. Vance gives the white preteen an ultimatum: stop reading when he should be listening or end up in summer school (which will destroy the annual family trip to New Hampshire). Worse than that, his parents will be spending longer hours at work, so he and his brother have to stay three extra hours in the Extended Day Program at school. According to EDP rules you either do homework in the library or you join a club. Happily, Alec learns he can actually start his own club, which he calls the Losers Club in order to scare kids away and ensure quiet reading time. Former best friend and now popular kid Kent delights in tormenting Alec, especially when the boys realize they both like new girl Nina (co-founder of the Losers Club). Can Alec navigate the rough waters of sixth grade, keep his grades up, and, most importantly, read? Clements adds to his growing oeuvre this tale peopled with likably familiar, mostly white kid characters in realistic situations; black Losers Club recruit Lily provides some diversity. Avid readers will cheer Alec on and wish their school bullies were as easily managed as Kent. Backmatter includes a list of the books, classics and popular, that the kids read throughout the story.
Another upbeat, modern school story sure to please fans and teachers. (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-399-55755-2
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: April 25, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2017
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
A real gem.
A 10-year old girl learns to adjust to a strange town, makes some fascinating friends, and fills the empty space in her heart thanks to a big old stray dog in this lyrical, moving, and enchanting book by a fresh new voice.
India Opal’s mama left when she was only three, and her father, “the preacher,” is absorbed in his own loss and in the work of his new ministry at the Open-Arms Baptist Church of Naomi [Florida]. Enter Winn-Dixie, a dog who “looked like a big piece of old brown carpet that had been left out in the rain.” But, this dog had a grin “so big that it made him sneeze.” And, as Opal says, “It’s hard not to immediately fall in love with a dog who has a good sense of humor.” Because of Winn-Dixie, Opal meets Miss Franny Block, an elderly lady whose papa built her a library of her own when she was just a little girl and she’s been the librarian ever since. Then, there’s nearly blind Gloria Dump, who hangs the empty bottle wreckage of her past from the mistake tree in her back yard. And, Otis, oh yes, Otis, whose music charms the gerbils, rabbits, snakes and lizards he’s let out of their cages in the pet store. Brush strokes of magical realism elevate this beyond a simple story of friendship to a well-crafted tale of community and fellowship, of sweetness, sorrow and hope. And, it’s funny, too.
A real gem. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: March 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-7636-0776-2
Page Count: 182
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2000
SEEN & HEARD
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