Jewish shmewish, everybody knows, so who cares? The early chapters are as inflected as The Goldbergs, and Bessie Setzer scorning to add raisins to her stuffed cabbage ("No one tells Heinz how to make ketchup. . .") is the salt of matzo-ball motherhood; but though one of Mark's worries is his impending Bar Mitzvah, being Jewish is not an issue until, on p. 109, a resentful boy blurts out "Watch it, Jew Boy"—and the reader, caught unawares, is shocked. Not so Mark: teammate Botts' latent anti-Semitism, surfacing away from the ballfield, is only another problem of the overlap between "what happens to me as a guy and what happens to me as a guy whose mother manages the team." And that is the crux of the book, although Bessie's triumphant disclosure that she's to manage the B'nai B'rith Little Leaguers, her glee in blackmailing Mark's college brother into coaching and her unorthodox techniques of handling the (self-dubbed) Bagels command major attention in the first half. That, and her funny fumbles with words. But the story is Mark's from the middle and he acquits himself well: he doesn't tell on Botts for selling looks at the Playgirl centerfold or for name-calling (but the implication is not ignored); foregoes a chance to get back at the obnoxious boy who's become his best friend's best friend; and, swallowing his dismay at learning he was a leftover in the first Little League auction and his discomfiture at being under the thumb of mother and brother, pulls himself up as a player. His summation, already implicit, needn't have been stated, and some of the situation comedy seems excessive but the book, and Bessie, are as wise as they are warm. A further attraction is the fine supporting cast, notably that twelve-year-old charmer, Fortune Cookie Rivera.
Pub Date: March 21, 1969
ISBN: 1416957987
Page Count: 211
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: April 30, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1969
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story.
A home-renovation project is interrupted by a family of wrens, allowing a young girl an up-close glimpse of nature.
Renata and her father enjoy working on upgrading their bathroom, installing a clawfoot bathtub, and cutting a space for a new window. One warm night, after Papi leaves the window space open, two wrens begin making a nest in the bathroom. Rather than seeing it as an unfortunate delay of their project, Renata and Papi decide to let the avian carpenters continue their work. Renata witnesses the birth of four chicks as their rosy eggs split open “like coats that are suddenly too small.” Renata finds at a crucial moment that she can help the chicks learn to fly, even with the bittersweet knowledge that it will only hasten their exits from her life. Rosen uses lively language and well-chosen details to move the story of the baby birds forward. The text suggests the strong bond built by this Afro-Latinx father and daughter with their ongoing project without needing to point it out explicitly, a light touch in a picture book full of delicate, well-drawn moments and precise wording. Garoche’s drawings are impressively detailed, from the nest’s many small bits to the developing first feathers on the chicks and the wall smudges and exposed wiring of the renovation. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at actual size.)
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: March 16, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-12320-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021
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