Even the quietest readers will cheer.
While finding her own voice, a shy sixth grader speaks up for bullied students.
Grieving the death of her father, Lily must adjust from home-schooling to enrolling in a public elementary school as well. Instantly befriended by Hobart, a gregarious boy who interjects his love for the sport of curling whenever he can, Lily sees that he’s bullied by wealthy classmate Ryan, who also targets her. The quiet, observant tween also can’t help but notice that Skylar (a boy presumably living in poverty because he wears the same clothes and has little to eat at lunch) and Dunya (a refugee from Iraq) are more of Ryan’s victims. Erskine aptly conveys Lily’s inner struggle between her reserved demeanor and her desire to stand up to bullying. Motivating Lily is her deathbed promise to her father to find ways to speak up and make her voice heard. With increasing self-esteem, Lily, along with Hobart, Skylar, and Dunya, not only finds ways to address bullying, but to spark kindness and respect throughout their school. Although the effect can be heavy-handed, the metafiction appearance between chapters of “Libro,” the voice of the physical book, adds humor and draws attention to the literary craft. As Lily takes the biggest chance yet, an open ending lets readers envision her success. With the exception of Dunya, Lily and most of her peers present as White.
Even the quietest readers will cheer. (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: May 18, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-06-305815-6
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 25, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021
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
Plays to Rowling’s fan base; equally suited for gifting and reading aloud or alone.
A 7-year-old descends into the Land of the Lost in search of his beloved comfort object.
Jack has loved Dur Pig long enough to wear the beanbag toy into tattered shapelessness—which is why, when his angry older stepsister chucks it out the car window on Christmas Eve, he not only throws a titanic tantrum and viciously rejects the titular replacement pig, but resolves to sneak out to find DP. To his amazement, the Christmas Pig offers to guide him to the place where all lost Things go. Whiffs of childhood classics, assembled with admirable professionalism into a jolly adventure story that plays all the right chords, hang about this tale of loss and love. Along with family drama, Rowling stirs in fantasy, allegory, and generous measures of social and political commentary. Pursued by the Land’s cruel and monstrous Loser, Jack and the Christmas Pig pass through territories from the Wastes of the Unlamented, where booger-throwing Bad Habits roam, to the luxurious City of the Missed for encounters with Hope, Happiness, and Power (a choleric king who rejects a vote that doesn’t go his way). A joyful reunion on the Island of the Beloved turns poignant, but Christmas Eve being “a night for miracles and lost causes,” perhaps there’s still a chance (with a little help from Santa) for everything to come right? In both the narrative and Field’s accomplished, soft-focus illustrations, the cast presents White.
Plays to Rowling’s fan base; equally suited for gifting and reading aloud or alone. (Fantasy. 8-12)Pub Date: Oct. 12, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-338-79023-8
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Oct. 20, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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