A charming start to a new adventure series.
An 8-year-old girl struggles to keep her secret when a new neighbor moves in next door.
Nobody knows that Isla Verde can talk to the animals on the island where she lives, Sol. It’s a talent that comes in handy when she sends her best friend, Fitz the Gecko, to check out the moving truck that arrived on her street. To her excitement, one of the new neighbors is a girl her age, so she might finally have a human best friend. However, Tora Rosa, who comes from La Ciudad, seems like the complete opposite of Isla—she’s tidy, loves the big city where she’s from, and runs from animals—but Isla still wants to make a good impression, so she comes up with an idea. On a trip to town to prepare for her big plan, Isla bumps into Tora. When an attention-seeking bird steals Tora’s prized pin, a reminder of her old home, the two embark on an adventure across the island. As they traverse Sol, Isla runs into some of her best animal friends, which puts her secret at risk of exposure. Isla just may find that the best way to make a friend is to be herself, despite her and Tora’s differences. A well-paced adventure with simple language, this is an excellent selection for beginning readers. Soft, warm illustrations depict Isla’s beloved island as she shows Tora around, keeping young readers engaged while they learn about what the island offers. Isla’s curiosity and joy shine through as a budding friendship blossoms. Isla and her family are brown-skinned, while Tora and her family are lighter-skinned; both families are Spanish-speaking and present as Latine.
A charming start to a new adventure series. (Fiction. 5-9)Pub Date: Dec. 27, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-66592-654-6
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Little Simon/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Oct. 11, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2022
Hee haw.
The print version of a knee-slapping cumulative ditty.
In the song, Smith meets a donkey on the road. It is three-legged, and so a “wonky donkey” that, on further examination, has but one eye and so is a “winky wonky donkey” with a taste for country music and therefore a “honky-tonky winky wonky donkey,” and so on to a final characterization as a “spunky hanky-panky cranky stinky-dinky lanky honky-tonky winky wonky donkey.” A free musical recording (of this version, anyway—the author’s website hints at an adults-only version of the song) is available from the publisher and elsewhere online. Even though the book has no included soundtrack, the sly, high-spirited, eye patch–sporting donkey that grins, winks, farts, and clumps its way through the song on a prosthetic metal hoof in Cowley’s informal watercolors supplies comical visual flourishes for the silly wordplay. Look for ready guffaws from young audiences, whether read or sung, though those attuned to disability stereotypes may find themselves wincing instead or as well.
Hee haw. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: May 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-545-26124-1
Page Count: 26
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Dec. 28, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
As Captain Awesome would say, this kid is “MI-TEE!” (Fiction. 5-8)
The town of Sunnyview got a little bit safer when 8-year-old Eugene McGillicudy moved in.
Just like his comic-book mentor, Super Dude, Eugene, aka Captain Awesome, is on a one-man mission is to save the world from supervillains, like the nefarious “Queen Stinkypants from Planet Baby.” Just as Eugene suspected, plenty of new supervillains await him at Sunnyview Elementary. Are Meredith Mooney and the mind-reading Ms. Beasley secretly working together to try and force Eugene to reveal his secret identity? Will Principal Brick Foot succeed in throwing Captain Awesome into the “Dungeon of Detention?” Fortunately, Eugene isn’t forced to go it alone. Charlie Thomas Jones, fellow comic-book lover and Super Dude fan, stands ready and willing to help. When the class hamster goes missing, Captain Awesome must don his cape and, with the help of his new best friend, ride to the rescue. Kirby’s funny and engaging third-person narration and O’Connor’s hilarious illustrations make the book easily accessible and enormously appealing, particularly to readers who have recently graduated to chapter books. But it is the quirky, mischievous Eugene that really makes this book special. His energy and humor are contagious, and his dogged commitment to his superhero alter ego is enough to make anyone a believer.
As Captain Awesome would say, this kid is “MI-TEE!” (Fiction. 5-8)Pub Date: April 3, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-4424-4090-6
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Little Simon/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Jan. 17, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
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