While this may be too didactic for many readers to choose on their own, it’s a sure bet for groups and families focused on...
Kids don’t often get a chance to help others outside their families in meaningful ways. This book may change that.
Ancona’s focus is not on connecting readers with specific organizations but on showing kids the myriad ways they can make a difference, whether working with their parents, their friends, their schools, or people in their communities. A classroom’s students knit hats and scarves for the homeless; families harvest produce for soup kitchens; kids bag plums and snacks for needy families; a girl accompanies her dad when he delivers a hot meal to an elderly man; children help train dogs for service jobs; one boy helps another who is disabled to ski; children water young trees during a drought; mentors help younger students with schoolwork; a club cleans up their section of adopted roadway. Ancona gives a general idea of what each volunteer opportunity entails and how long it takes. Lots of pictures fill the spreads. The kids are named in the text, which gives the whole package a nicely personal feel—individuals are doing this work, not generic people. The children are focused and obviously trying their best, but they are also finding time for fun.
While this may be too didactic for many readers to choose on their own, it’s a sure bet for groups and families focused on doing some community service. (Nonfiction. 5-12)Pub Date: Aug. 25, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-7636-7367-3
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: June 5, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2015
It’s hard to argue with success, but guides that actually do the math will be more useful to budding capitalists.
How to raise money for a coveted poster: put your friends to work!
John, founder of the FUBU fashion line and a Shark Tank venture capitalist, offers a self-referential blueprint for financial success. Having only half of the $10 he needs for a Minka J poster, Daymond forks over $1 to buy a plain T-shirt, paints a picture of the pop star on it, sells it for $5, and uses all of his cash to buy nine more shirts. Then he recruits three friends to decorate them with his design and help sell them for an unspecified amount (from a conveniently free and empty street-fair booth) until they’re gone. The enterprising entrepreneur reimburses himself for the shirts and splits the remaining proceeds, which leaves him with enough for that poster as well as a “brand-new business book,” while his friends express other fiscal strategies: saving their share, spending it all on new art supplies, or donating part and buying a (math) book with the rest. (In a closing summation, the author also suggests investing in stocks, bonds, or cryptocurrency.) Though Miles cranks up the visual energy in her sparsely detailed illustrations by incorporating bright colors and lots of greenbacks, the actual advice feels a bit vague. Daymond is Black; most of the cast are people of color. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
It’s hard to argue with success, but guides that actually do the math will be more useful to budding capitalists. (Picture book. 7-9)Pub Date: March 21, 2023
ISBN: 978-0-593-56727-2
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2023
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
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