A compelling look at friendship and community uplift under harsh circumstances.
A boy and his best friend use a seemingly illogical trading system that ends up bringing a sense of vitality and a source of economic stability to their community.
Boipelo is a 12-year-old African boy who lives with his grandmother and father in Cedarville, located in the Eastern Cape in South Africa. Food is scarce, unemployment is rampant, and often the family’s only source of income is Boipelo’s grandmother’s monthly pension from the social security office. But one day Boipelo reads a magazine article about a man in Montreal who traded a red paper clip for a pen shaped like a fish—a move that led to many more trades, including, eventually, a house. Inspired, Boipelo enlists the help of his best friend, Posto, to attempt trading, and though they begin with just a simple clay cow, the trades make a real impact on the community. A newspaper article about the trades leads to fame for Boipelo, but the journalist omits Posto’s role, and the boys’ friendship frays. In this humorous, optimistic tale, Krone explores the mutability of friendships and the perils of trying to hold on to them too strongly. Background information from the author discusses the effect the post-apartheid reconstruction period had on poor South African communities like Boipelo’s. A YouTube link is provided so that readers can hear the isiXhosa language being spoken.
A compelling look at friendship and community uplift under harsh circumstances. (glossary) (Realistic fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: June 14, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-946395-66-5
Page Count: 188
Publisher: Catalyst Press
Review Posted Online: April 26, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2022
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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