A warmly inviting book, but the heroine’s rebelliousness suggests there’s more to the story.
In Iran, a young Muslim girl forms a strong, affectionate bond with a Jewish family, as recounted in this illustrated children’s book based on the author’s life.
Five-year-old Maryam is a bright girl full of questions. She’s “known as the family clown for all [her] funny voices and silly faces,” and she especially loves to make her sometimes sad mother laugh. She also loves the beautiful city in the south of Iran where she grows up with her parents and three older brothers, but one day her family moves to central Iran. In Isfahan, Maryam misses her friends, and at first has only her mother to talk to. The family rents a house with kind owners, a rabbi and his wife. Maryam’s mother explains that although their religions are different, they worship the same God, and Maryam should be respectful. Maryam likes Rabbi and Mrs. Sassoness and their beautiful daughter, Shahin, immediately; they welcome her chatty visits, and Shahin treats Maryam like a little sister: “They laughed as if they belonged to one family.” This warm acceptance helps soothe Maryam’s frequently hurt pride. She goes to kindergarten but is expelled for asking too many questions. She later attends a school where she’s allowed to skip a grade. Eventually the family moves into their own home, but Rabbi Sassoness will still play a role in her future life. Omid (Mr. Nightingale, 2012, etc.) dedicates her book to the Sassonesses and intends it as “a gesture of love from one Iranian to all Jewish people around the world.” But Maryam’s interactions with the family take up very little of the narrative; her most significant encounter (the rabbi helps teenage Maryam rediscover her faith) is merely mentioned in an aside. More central is Maryam’s struggle with pride in a culture that expects women and children to be quietly deferential. When she triumphs over one of her brothers, she never lets him forget it, and that fieriness (as much as anything) captures the true spirit of this book.
A warmly inviting book, but the heroine’s rebelliousness suggests there’s more to the story.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Dog Ear Publisher
Review Posted Online: Dec. 10, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Little Blue Truck keeps on truckin’—but not without some backfires.
Little Blue Truck feels, well, blue when he delivers valentine after valentine but receives nary a one.
His bed overflowing with cards, Blue sets out to deliver a yellow card with purple polka dots and a shiny purple heart to Hen, one with a shiny fuchsia heart to Pig, a big, shiny, red heart-shaped card to Horse, and so on. With each delivery there is an exchange of Beeps from Blue and the appropriate animal sounds from his friends, Blue’s Beeps always set in blue and the animal’s vocalization in a color that matches the card it receives. But as Blue heads home, his deliveries complete, his headlight eyes are sad and his front bumper droops ever so slightly. Blue is therefore surprised (but readers may not be) when he pulls into his garage to be greeted by all his friends with a shiny blue valentine just for him. In this, Blue’s seventh outing, it’s not just the sturdy protagonist that seems to be wilting. Schertle’s verse, usually reliable, stumbles more than once; stanzas such as “But Valentine’s Day / didn’t seem much fun / when he didn’t get cards / from anyone” will cause hitches during read-alouds. The illustrations, done by Joseph in the style of original series collaborator Jill McElmurry, are pleasant enough, but his compositions often feel stiff and forced.
Little Blue Truck keeps on truckin’—but not without some backfires. (Board book. 1-4)Pub Date: Dec. 8, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-358-27244-1
Page Count: 20
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: Jan. 18, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
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
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