A mostly amusing saga of primary-school friendships with a clever pro-reading subtext
Ten-year-old Ruby Starr feels threatened when a new girl arrives in her fifth-grade class and turns everything upside down.
Ruby, a white girl with blonde, curly hair, is an ardent bibliophile who often imagines she’s a character in a book herself. Ruby’s happily ensconced in school with special girlfriends and the Unicorn Book Club she started when new kid Charlotte, also white, appears. Before Ruby realizes what’s happening, Charlotte’s invited to join the Unicorns and Ruby’s best friend seems “gaga” about the new arrival. When Charlotte eschews reading and suggests it would be fun to turn the book club into a drama club, an angry, hurt, and jealous Ruby asks Charlotte if she’s ever even read a book. Immediately regretting her words, Ruby turns to her fictional heroines for inspiration. After accidentally discovering the secret behind Charlotte’s dislike of books, Ruby eventually has a chance to redeem herself. Peppered with references to her favorite books, Ruby’s fresh, humorous, first-person, present-tense account of her fifth-grade traumas, her real and imaginary friendships, and her supportive family rings true. However, the text is frequently abruptly interrupted by Ruby’s dramatic daydreams complete with (uncredited) cartoon illustrations—a distracting and unsuccessful device. Ruby’s world is a largely white one.
A mostly amusing saga of primary-school friendships with a clever pro-reading subtext . (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4926-4577-1
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
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
PERSPECTIVES
SEEN & HEARD
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