A short and sweet story that will encourage deeper conversations around shame, honesty, and courage.
The unexpected loss of a dear friendship leads to anxiety and ultimately resilience in television writer and producer Hyman’s first middle-grade novel.
Mango is a thoughtful 12-year-old black girl at Trueheart Middle School when her BFF gets a new cellphone, and suddenly they are on different planes of existence. When Mango accidentally drowns the phone in the bathroom sink, the fallout includes a lost job for her dad, a lost friend, and, above all, a lost sense of self and trust in others. “From then on, I was going to be uber-careful about who I got close to and who I let get close to me.” Fortunately, despite her mounting anxiety, Mango learns that not everyone is as mercurial as her ex–BFF. Izzy, an exuberant Mexican-American classmate and former preschool play date that she had lost touch with, is the first of many to show Mango what a true friendship based on honesty and trust can look like. From cast mates in the school play to mentors and parents, a diverse community surrounds Mango as she learns to believe in herself and others again. Even former enemies can turn out to be friends when one learns to be real. Though this book clearly helps fill the need for minority female leads, the universal themes it addresses give it broad appeal across ages, genders, and cultural backgrounds.
A short and sweet story that will encourage deeper conversations around shame, honesty, and courage. (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: June 6, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4549-2332-9
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Sterling
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
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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