Equal parts baseball and potty humor with an added whiff of conflict resolution.
Tension winds up for a nasty pitch when two friends find themselves contending for a single spot on the local baseball team.
Whereas 11-year-old Tommy loves to play baseball and sees winning the one available spot on the prestigious Bulldogs as key to his middle and high school future, his unathletic video gamer best bud, Pelican, is in the weeklong tryouts only because his mother is forcing him to. But to Pel’s surprise (and Tommy’s dismay), with a little coaching from the team’s tough-as-nails girl catcher, Diesel, he discovers that he’s a natural slugger, with a pretty good arm in the outfield to boot. As Pel’s enthusiasm for the game (and for hanging around with Diesel) grows, the boys’ once-close friendship quickly heads toward a rift. Chick plays to the crowd with light doses of baseball action and heavy ones of broad humor—ranging from frequent fart references and a shopping trip for the required athletic cups to a legendary port-a-potty, dubbed the “Turd Tank,” located just beyond the outfield that ultimately plays a significant role in the climax. The author gives his two leads (who switch off narrative duties in alternate chapters) some life as well as baseball coaching plus the perspective to see that their friendship is important enough to them to work at mending fences. Radlicki’s spot art adds to the humor. Tommy reads white; Pel is cued Latine.
Equal parts baseball and potty humor with an added whiff of conflict resolution. (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: May 7, 2024
ISBN: 9781524884796
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing
Review Posted Online: March 9, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
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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