From the author of The Barber's Cutting Edge (1994), a flawed story that is also predictable: Wezielee, the youngest child of a large African-American sharecropper family, is left at home to cook the midday meal while the rest of her family toils in the fields. She is distracted by her wish to attend the nearby school, and meal after meal is oversalted, overcooked, overspiced, or just plain forgotten. Long before Wezielee ruins the fifth consecutive dinner, readers will have leaped ahead to the foregone conclusion: She will never be a cook, so she may as well be a scholar. Little about the family's hardscrabble life is authentically described. They are sharecroppers and migrant pickers, two very different, mutually exclusive occupations. Wezielee's father is said to be planting and weeding, but it is harvesttime, when neither activity would take place. Wezielee's thirst for learning and her long-suffering family's patience with her culinary shortcomings are attractive, as are the watercolors Griffith (David Adler's A Picture Book of Sojourner Truth, 1994) provides of the hardworking clan, with their sparsely furnished cabin and plain, worn clothes. (Picture book. 5-9)
Pub Date: Sept. 15, 1995
ISBN: 0-8234-1185-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1995
BOOK REVIEW
Give this child’s-eye view of a day at the beach with an attentive father high marks for coziness: “When your ball blows across the sand and into the ocean and starts to drift away, your daddy could say, Didn’t I tell you not to play too close to the waves? But he doesn’t. He wades out into the cold water. And he brings your ball back to the beach and plays roll and catch with you.” Alley depicts a moppet and her relaxed-looking dad (to all appearances a single parent) in informally drawn beach and domestic settings: playing together, snuggling up on the sofa and finally hugging each other goodnight. The third-person voice is a bit distancing, but it makes the togetherness less treacly, and Dad’s mix of love and competence is less insulting, to parents and children both, than Douglas Wood’s What Dads Can’t Do (2000), illus by Doug Cushman. (Picture book. 5-7)
Pub Date: May 23, 2005
ISBN: 0-618-00361-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2005
A strong second outing for Dillard and J.D.
Breakout kid barber J.D. embraces a summer of opportunity.
Readers met J.D. Jones just as he took his hometown of Meridian, Mississippi, by storm, winning himself community acclaim and a chair at the revered Hart and Sons barbershop in series opener J.D. and the Great Barber Battle(2021). What’s next for the haircut prodigy? School’s just getting out, and there’s so much life happening outside—if only one can escape home learning with the grandparents. J.D.’s sister, Vanessa, brings along multitalented mutual friend Jessyka to share an ambitious challenge: “Let’s start a YouTube channel!” Can they get millions of views and wow the whole world? They are already amazing at haircuts and hairstyles—all they need is to learn how to make a great YouTube video. The story models strategies for scripting short videos reflecting the templates of viral YouTube hair tutorials, inviting readers to not only see the journey of the characters, but maybe also practice these skills at home. This book is bound to educate all about some of the most storied and cherished traditions within the Black community. Bringing in Vanessa is a great touch to extend the series across gender, and hopefully she’ll get a chance to lead her own adventures. This book blends skill-building, entrepreneurship, and strong family values to give young Black children visions of what’s possible when they follow their passions and embrace their community.
A strong second outing for Dillard and J.D. (Fiction. 6-9)Pub Date: Aug. 3, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-11155-0
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Kokila
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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