Unsuccessful.
A house learns to adjust to change.
The house stands in an open field and, alone, withstands occasional harsh weather. Seasons pass, and the house forges on alone—until the day the wind blows “something unexpected his way.” Two new dwellings have been built relatively close to the house. The house responds by closing his shutters. After many years, a road is built near the house, and “row upon row of blank faces” stare back at him when he opens his shutters. A neighborhood of houses has been erected (fashioned in the illustrations from cardboard cutouts), and the house closes his shutters again to them all. When he finally opens some side shutters to take a peek at what’s around him, he sees rows of houses made from a wide array of materials, and he finally seems to accept his new neighbors. The illustrations feature photographs of 3-D models of the houses accompanied by spare and textured drawings and collage elements in pictures with intentionally off-kilter perspectives and unbalanced compositions that emphasize the house’s loneliness. Darker, shadowed spreads shift to ones filled with light after the house decides to embrace his neighbors. The narrative initially seems to hint the story will be a The Little House–like one about urban sprawl (with the initial sameness of all the new homes), yet it shifts to being one about accepting change. There’s little here to convince children to care about the house; similar stories have been told with significantly more inviting characters, Virginia Lee Burton’s classic just one of them.
Unsuccessful. (Picture book. 6-10)Pub Date: Aug. 3, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-77306-368-3
Page Count: 44
Publisher: Groundwood
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
It’s hard to argue with success, but guides that actually do the math will be more useful to budding capitalists.
How to raise money for a coveted poster: put your friends to work!
John, founder of the FUBU fashion line and a Shark Tank venture capitalist, offers a self-referential blueprint for financial success. Having only half of the $10 he needs for a Minka J poster, Daymond forks over $1 to buy a plain T-shirt, paints a picture of the pop star on it, sells it for $5, and uses all of his cash to buy nine more shirts. Then he recruits three friends to decorate them with his design and help sell them for an unspecified amount (from a conveniently free and empty street-fair booth) until they’re gone. The enterprising entrepreneur reimburses himself for the shirts and splits the remaining proceeds, which leaves him with enough for that poster as well as a “brand-new business book,” while his friends express other fiscal strategies: saving their share, spending it all on new art supplies, or donating part and buying a (math) book with the rest. (In a closing summation, the author also suggests investing in stocks, bonds, or cryptocurrency.) Though Miles cranks up the visual energy in her sparsely detailed illustrations by incorporating bright colors and lots of greenbacks, the actual advice feels a bit vague. Daymond is Black; most of the cast are people of color. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
It’s hard to argue with success, but guides that actually do the math will be more useful to budding capitalists. (Picture book. 7-9)Pub Date: March 21, 2023
ISBN: 978-0-593-56727-2
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2023
A fitting farewell, still funny, acute, and positive in its view of human nature even in its 37th episode.
A long-running series reaches its closing chapters.
Having, as Kline notes in her warm valedictory acknowledgements, taken 30 years to get through second and third grade, Harry Spooger is overdue to move on—but not just into fourth grade, it turns out, as his family is moving to another town as soon as the school year ends. The news leaves his best friend, narrator “Dougo,” devastated…particularly as Harry doesn’t seem all that fussed about it. With series fans in mind, the author takes Harry through a sort of last-day-of-school farewell tour. From his desk he pulls a burned hot dog and other items that featured in past episodes, says goodbye to Song Lee and other classmates, and even (for the first time ever) leads Doug and readers into his house and memento-strewn room for further reminiscing. Of course, Harry isn’t as blasé about the move as he pretends, and eyes aren’t exactly dry when he departs. But hardly is he out of sight before Doug is meeting Mohammad, a new neighbor from Syria who (along with further diversifying a cast that began as mostly white but has become increasingly multiethnic over the years) will also be starting fourth grade at summer’s end, and planning a written account of his “horrible” buddy’s exploits. Finished illustrations not seen.
A fitting farewell, still funny, acute, and positive in its view of human nature even in its 37th episode. (Fiction. 7-9)Pub Date: Nov. 27, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-451-47963-1
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Sept. 16, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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