Who’s taking care of toddler Tucker Goodchild? Not his real babysitter, that’s for sure. Rachel Rottenberger is Tucker’s sitter, but she needs a substitute so she can see her favorite rock group, Scum and the Suds. Fifth-grader Joel Maccarone is strong-armed into watching Tucker for a few hours. He has taken a babysitting class but has never actually watched a real, live toddler. As the reader will no doubt guess from the beginning, everything that can go wrong will. Writing over-the-top humor is one thing, putting a baby in danger is another. Joel drops the baby as he attempts to squeeze him into the high chair, ice cream flies through the air and speckles the cabinets, the birdcage gets knocked over and capsizes, Tucker eats a chalk crayon . . . you get the picture. Would any mother, upon hearing that her fifth-grade son is babysitting for the first time without the baby’s parents’ permission, simply allow it to happen? How likely is it that a baby would be left wearing cloth diapers? With pins? In 2002? Would a child who can’t even work a high chair be able to fashion a new diaper out of his own t-shirt? Miraculously, Joel is transformed from the bumbling nervous sitter into a picture of confidence. He strips the baby, tests the water temperature with his elbow, and gives Tucker a bath. (A ten-year-old boy bathing a toddler?) Tucker miraculously says the word “coset” and lets Joel know where the disposable diapers are. (And why wasn’t one of them on the baby when the sitter arrived?) Younger readers might be amused by the slapstick escapades of Joel, but older children will cringe at the sheer implausibility of the tale. Even the characters’ names distract from the story. Not even Glasser’s wonderfully amusing signature black-and-white drawings rescue this work. Cleary’s Ramona and Hurwitz’s Russell are much better choices for children who like realistic, humorous situations. (Fiction. 8-12)
Pub Date: April 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-525-46830-7
Page Count: 112
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2002
BOOK REVIEW
Though it lacks nuance, still a must-read.
Tyler is the son of generations of Vermont dairy farmers.
Mari is the Mexican-born daughter of undocumented migrant laborers whose mother has vanished in a perilous border crossing. When Tyler’s father is disabled in an accident, the only way the family can afford to keep the farm is by hiring Mari’s family. As Tyler and Mari’s friendship grows, the normal tensions of middle-school boy-girl friendships are complicated by philosophical and political truths. Tyler wonders how he can be a patriot while his family breaks the law. Mari worries about her vanished mother and lives in fear that she will be separated from her American-born sisters if la migra comes. Unashamedly didactic, Alvarez’s novel effectively complicates simple equivalencies between what’s illegal and what’s wrong. Mari’s experience is harrowing, with implied atrocities and immigration raids, but equally full of good people doing the best they can. The two children find hope despite the unhappily realistic conclusions to their troubles, in a story which sees the best in humanity alongside grim realities.
Though it lacks nuance, still a must-read. (Fiction. 9-11)Pub Date: Jan. 13, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-375-85838-3
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2008
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
With young readers diagnosed with anxiety in ever increasing numbers, this book offers a necessary mirror to many.
Young Raina is 9 when she throws up for the first time that she remembers, due to a stomach bug. Even a year later, when she is in fifth grade, she fears getting sick.
Raina begins having regular stomachaches that keep her home from school. She worries about sharing food with her friends and eating certain kinds of foods, afraid of getting sick or food poisoning. Raina’s mother enrolls her in therapy. At first Raina isn’t sure about seeing a therapist, but over time she develops healthy coping mechanisms to deal with her stress and anxiety. Her therapist helps her learn to ground herself and relax, and in turn she teaches her classmates for a school project. Amping up the green, wavy lines to evoke Raina’s nausea, Telgemeier brilliantly produces extremely accurate visual representations of stress and anxiety. Thought bubbles surround Raina in some panels, crowding her with anxious “what if”s, while in others her negative self-talk appears to be literally crushing her. Even as she copes with anxiety disorder and what is eventually diagnosed as mild irritable bowel syndrome, she experiences the typical stresses of school life, going from cheer to panic in the blink of an eye. Raina is white, and her classmates are diverse; one best friend is Korean American.
With young readers diagnosed with anxiety in ever increasing numbers, this book offers a necessary mirror to many. (Graphic memoir. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 17, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-545-85251-7
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Graphix/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 11, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2019
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