Amusing, heartfelt time travel about friends and wishes—old and new.
Bracing for a lonely summer, Ash is surprised when the little girl she babysits and some unexpected time travel open new horizons.
Ash begins her summer knowing her best friend’s moving to Oregon, leaving her to cope alone with prosopagnosia, a condition that prevents her from recognizing faces. Additionally, her mother expects her to babysit a 7-year-old named Claire for three weeks. An enthusiastic, high-maintenance child whose mother recently died after abandoning her family, Claire’s armed with a wish list of things she wants to do, and Ash finds herself unwillingly escorting Claire to thrift shops and senior center events where she meets new people. Though she’s busy with Claire, Ash becomes distracted after finding a jar labeled “wishes” in the basement that transports her into the lives of two girls living when her parents were young. As she becomes obsessed with the past, Ash gradually realizes there’s a relevant connection to her own life. Ash tells her summer saga in a humorous, chatty, somewhat-vulnerable voice, and although the time-travel thread initially feels disconnected from the plotline, the past and present eventually sync. Spot art line drawings feature chapter elements.
Amusing, heartfelt time travel about friends and wishes—old and new. (Fantasy. 8-12)Pub Date: April 15, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-06-202675-0
Page Count: 408
Publisher: Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 11, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2014
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs.
The Heffley family’s house undergoes a disastrous attempt at home improvement.
When Great Aunt Reba dies, she leaves some money to the family. Greg’s mom calls a family meeting to determine what to do with their share, proposing home improvements and then overruling the family’s cartoonish wish lists and instead pushing for an addition to the kitchen. Before bringing in the construction crew, the Heffleys attempt to do minor maintenance and repairs themselves—during which Greg fails at the work in various slapstick scenes. Once the professionals are brought in, the problems keep getting worse: angry neighbors, terrifying problems in walls, and—most serious—civil permitting issues that put the kibosh on what work’s been done. Left with only enough inheritance to patch and repair the exterior of the house—and with the school’s dismal standardized test scores as a final straw—Greg’s mom steers the family toward moving, opening up house-hunting and house-selling storylines (and devastating loyal Rowley, who doesn’t want to lose his best friend). While Greg’s positive about the move, he’s not completely uncaring about Rowley’s action. (And of course, Greg himself is not as unaffected as he wishes.) The gags include effectively placed callbacks to seemingly incidental events (the “stress lizard” brought in on testing day is particularly funny) and a lampoon of after-school-special–style problem books. Just when it seems that the Heffleys really will move, a new sequence of chaotic trouble and property destruction heralds a return to the status quo. Whew.
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs. (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 8-12)Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3903-3
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Nov. 18, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
A warm bundle of holiday cheer.
In a funny, feel-good tale, 12-year-old twins separated at birth meet by chance and try to pull off a family switch during the December holidays.
The girls, who are cued white, agree that it would be a delicious prank, but each has a personal motive, too: Aviva Davis, who was adopted by a culturally Jewish mom and a Black dad who was raised Christian, wonders what it’s like to celebrate Christmas. Budding author Holly Martin, who was adopted by a white-presenting single mom, sees a golden opportunity to gather experiences for a school writing assignment about facing her fears. In a plot as sweet as a Hanukkah jelly doughnut and twisty as a Christmas cinnamon roll, the pair just manages to bail one another out of a string of sticky situations—both hilarious and otherwise. They both learn something of the customs and meaning of the two holidays while working through tears and laughter—not to mention conflicts sparked by their very different personalities. Everything culminates in a holiday performance at a local senior center that will have readers rising up to cheer them on. Though their history remains tantalizingly mysterious, for the protagonists, who narrate alternating chapters, it’s mission accomplished and more: Aviva emerges feeling more secure in her Jewish identity, while anxious Holly discovers unexpected depths of courage.
A warm bundle of holiday cheer. (song lyrics) (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Oct. 29, 2024
ISBN: 9781250360670
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2024
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