A richly satisfying exploration of the logic and determination with which children work to make things right. (Fiction 10-12)
When her unreliable mom is hired to cook and clean for a wealthy Alabama family, Mavis is hopeful they’ll stay long enough for her to have a best friend.
The Tullys’ daughter, Rose, is just Mavis’ age, and things looks promising, but the timid girl has been so browbeaten by her overbearing, haughty mother that she’s forgotten how to have fun. Mavis may be poor, but she has spirit enough for both of them. Rose spends most of her time with the elderly gatekeeper of Magnolia Estates, but ever since Mr. Duffy’s dog died he’s been slipping up at work, and Rose’s mother is anxious to have him fired. Mavis and Rose hatch a scheme to unite him with a stray dog they call Henry, who’s actually an escapee from Wonderland, a dog track, and who may be euthanized since his racing days are over. O’Connor, a master storyteller, presents this moving tale from the alternating viewpoints of the girls and Henry, using their unique narrative voices to craft an affecting story of loneliness and the redemptive powers of the human (and dog) spirit. The racial identities of Mr. Duffy and Mavis are kept deliberately vague (although she is pale-skinned on the cover, just like Rose), but it’s very clear that they are the underclass, evocatively contrasted against Mrs. Tully’s mistaken sense of superiority that even Rose learns to fight.
A richly satisfying exploration of the logic and determination with which children work to make things right. (Fiction 10-12)Pub Date: Aug. 28, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-374-31060-8
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2018
PROFILES
A solid debut: fluent, funny and eminently sequel-worthy.
Inventively tweaking a popular premise, Jensen pits two Incredibles-style families with superpowers against each other—until a new challenge rises to unite them.
The Johnsons invariably spit at the mere mention of their hated rivals, the Baileys. Likewise, all Baileys habitually shake their fists when referring to the Johnsons. Having long looked forward to getting a superpower so that he too can battle his clan’s nemeses, Rafter Bailey is devastated when, instead of being able to fly or something else cool, he acquires the “power” to strike a match on soft polyester. But when hated classmate Juanita Johnson turns up newly endowed with a similarly bogus power and, against all family tradition, they compare notes, it becomes clear that something fishy is going on. Both families regard themselves as the heroes and their rivals as the villains. Someone has been inciting them to fight each other. Worse yet, that someone has apparently developed a device that turns real superpowers into silly ones. Teaching themselves on the fly how to get past their prejudice and work together, Rafter, his little brother, Benny, and Juanita follow a well-laid-out chain of clues and deductions to the climactic discovery of a third, genuinely nefarious family, the Joneses, and a fiendishly clever scheme to dispose of all the Baileys and Johnsons at once. Can they carry the day?
A solid debut: fluent, funny and eminently sequel-worthy. (Adventure. 10-12)Pub Date: Jan. 21, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-06-220961-0
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Nov. 1, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
On equal footing with a garden-variety potato.
The new kid in school endures becoming the school mascot.
Ben Hardy has never cared for potatoes, and this distaste has become a barrier to adjusting to life in his new Idaho town. His school’s mascot is the Spud, and after a series of misfortunes, Ben is enlisted to don the potato costume and cheer on his school’s team. Ben balances his duties as a life-sized potato against his desperate desire to hide the fact that he’s the dork in the suit. After all, his cute new crush, Jayla, wouldn’t be too impressed to discover Ben’s secret. The ensuing novel is a fairly boilerplate middle–grade narrative: snarky tween protagonist, the crush that isn’t quite what she seems, and a pair of best friends that have more going on than our hero initially believes. The author keeps the novel moving quickly, pushing forward with witty asides and narrative momentum so fast that readers won’t really mind that the plot’s spine is one they’ve encountered many times before. Once finished, readers will feel little resonance and move on to the next book in their to-read piles, but in the moment the novel is pleasant enough. Ben, Jayla, and Ben’s friend Hunter are white while Ellie, Ben’s other good pal, is Latina.
On equal footing with a garden-variety potato. (Fiction. 10-12)Pub Date: March 24, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-11866-5
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Nov. 23, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
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