A kid-friendly companion to Michael Pollan’s Food Rules (2011).
Continuing the food themes from his picture-book illustration debut in Jacqueline Briggs Martin’s Farmer Will Allen and the Growing Table (2013), Larkin here makes his authorial debut.
In 40-plus energetic poems, Larkin celebrates the good and decries the bad in the food world. Though individual poems might seem like amuse-bouches by themselves, they add up to a full meal, and the volume as a whole serves up a lively conversation about food. The collection takes a few jabs at the food industry. One poem laments the “small food desert in Harlem,” and another describes Ashley, who will only eat foods she can spell (and therefore can’t eat bread that contains azodicarbonamide). Grampa complains that there are “[t]oo many people touching my food” (referring to packers and shippers, processors and pickers, inspectors, store guys and baggers). It also encourages planting gardens, eating meals together and enjoying good food such as noodles: “Twirl them, whirl them, / slop them, slip them, / twist them, curl them, / whip them, flip them.” And if the poems’ rhythms don’t always roll off the tongue as easily as those noodles slide off a fork, the overall effect of the poetry and the mixed-media, graffiti-style art (inspired by Jean-Michel Basquiat) is exuberant: “Where there is food, there will be laughter (and crumbs).”
A kid-friendly companion to Michael Pollan’s Food Rules (2011). (Poetry. 10-16)Pub Date: Oct. 24, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-9836615-5-9
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Readers to Eaters
Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
An intimate novel that beautifully confronts grief and loss.
It’s 1983, and 13-year-old Indian American Reha feels caught between two worlds.
Monday through Friday, she goes to a school where she stands out for not being White but where she has a weekday best friend, Rachel, and does English projects with potential crush Pete. On the weekends, she’s with her other best friend, Sunita (Sunny for short), at gatherings hosted by her Indian community. Reha feels frustrated that her parents refuse to acknowledge her Americanness and insist on raising her with Indian values and habits. Then, on the night of the middle school dance, her mother is admitted to the hospital, and Reha’s world is split in two again: this time, between hospital and home. Suddenly she must learn not just how to be both Indian and American, but also how to live with her mother’s leukemia diagnosis. The sections dealing with Reha’s immigrant identity rely on oft-told themes about the overprotectiveness of immigrant parents and lack the nuance found in later pages. Reha’s story of her evolving relationships with her parents, however, feels layered and real, and the scenes in which Reha must grapple with the possible loss of a parent are beautifully and sensitively rendered. The sophistication of the text makes it a valuable and thought-provoking read even for those older than the protagonist.
An intimate novel that beautifully confronts grief and loss. (Verse novel. 11-15)Pub Date: Feb. 2, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-06-304742-6
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Nov. 26, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A story that sings to the soul.
Elio is in love for the first time—and he has no idea what to do about it.
Eighth grader Elio Solis is only 13, but he’s met the girl of his dreams. His feelings for Camelia are so profound that he sees things in ultraviolet: “Whoever heard of having your whole vision / change because you met some girl?” Growing up in East Oakland, California, Elio is trying to navigate social media, friendships, his family’s Mexican culture, and his changing body—all part of his quest to understand what it means to be a good boy who will grow into a good man. What does that look like when your father takes you to cockfights and your mother warns you about toxic masculinity? Most of all, how do you handle the crushing blows of a first heartbreak? Written in Salazar’s stunning and highly accessible verse, with Spanish words contextually woven in and easily understood by non-Spanish speakers, this novel stands out for the thoughtful way it expresses a young boy’s perspective as it discusses topics such as masculinity and consent. Elio and his dad join Brothers Rising, a group started by Fernando, Elio’s best friend Paco’s dad, which offers them community and a framework for honest conversations about coming of age and masculinity, as well as a beautiful rendering of Indigenous Mexican rituals.
A story that sings to the soul. (Verse fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: April 2, 2024
ISBN: 9781338775655
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Jan. 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2024
PERSPECTIVES
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