Looks like a novel, or pieces of several, but fails to coalesce.
A parental challenge to one line in a fifth grade reading assignment gets an overwhelming response.
Interweaving three storylines connected by little beyond the timely issue under discussion, Levithan sets fifth graders Gideon White and Roberto Garcia on course to a tender and delicious (there is chocolate involved) love story. Fast-forward a generation to chronicle the upwelling of support humiliated young Donovan Johnson gets from his contemporary fifth grade class when his mom kicks off a formal challenge to an ambiguously worded passage—that may or may not signal romantic love between two boys—in an adventure novel their openly gay teacher has assigned (occasional melodramatic episodes from said novel, constituting the third strand in the book, are interspersed). Levithan’s book, which features passionate speeches and revelations before and at a packed school board meeting, comes across primarily as a platform for attitude modeling. It certainly succeeds as a manifesto to validate, amid much love and laughter, the rights of young people to seek, experiment with, and express their own identities. What is missing is a deeper exploration that goes beyond character types to present a unified story that discusses these critical subjects through nuanced engagement and growth. The cast reads as White except for Roberto, who is Latinx.
Looks like a novel, or pieces of several, but fails to coalesce. (author’s note) (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: May 10, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-593-48468-5
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: April 12, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2022
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
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
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