Still, readers will not be able to put this light, funny fantasy down.
It sounds like a flimsy excuse, but for young Jim it's literally true: An imp really does eat his homework, as well as gets him into further trouble with his mother, his father, and his teacher in Chinese school.
Why? Because Jim's ever-crabby grandfather is the reincarnation of legendary imp-fighter Chung Kuei, and the newly escaped imp—with four arms and red eyes, and invisible to everyone else—is bent on avenging centuries of persecution. Once Jim overcomes his reluctance to ask "Grandpop" for help, a wild chase through San Francisco's Chinatown ensues, marked by pratfalls, chaos, and transformations. At last Grandpop corners the imp, drives it into a frenzy with a barrage of corny jokes and insults, then stuffs it into a silk pillow. Yep (The Dragon Prince, p. 1316, etc.) telescopes the plot severely; he occasionally checks the pace long enough for a peek into a sweatshop, or a conversation about the younger generation's drift away from traditional culture.
Still, readers will not be able to put this light, funny fantasy down. (Fiction. 9-11)Pub Date: Jan. 31, 1998
ISBN: 0-06-027688-6
Page Count: 87
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 1997
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
In a second set of entries—of a planned three, all first published in somewhat different form online in installments—slacker diarist Greg starts a new school year. After a miserable summer of avoiding swim-team practice by hiding out in the bathroom (and having to wrap himself in toilet paper to keep from freezing), he finally passes on the dreaded “cheese touch” (a form of cooties) to an unsuspecting new classmate, then stumbles through another semester of pranks and mishaps. On the domestic front, his ongoing wars with older brother Rodrick, would-be drummer in a would-be metal band called Löded Diper, share center stage with their mother’s generally futile parenting strategies. As before, the text, which is done in a legible hand-lettered–style font, is liberally interspersed with funny line drawings, many of which feature punch lines in speech balloons. Though even less likable that Junie B. Jones, Greg is (well, generally) at least not actively malicious, and so often is he the victim of circumstance or his own schemes gone awry that readers can’t help but feel empathy. This reasonably self-contained installment closes with a truce between the siblings. A temporary one, more than likely. (Illustrated fiction. 9-11)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-8109-9473-7
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2007
BOOK TO SCREEN
The journey is even gently funny—Omakayas’s brother spends much of the year with a porcupine on his head. Charming and...
This third entry in the Birchbark House series takes Omakayas and her family west from their home on the Island of the Golden-Breasted Woodpecker, away from land the U.S. government has claimed.
Difficulties abound; the unknown landscape is fraught with danger, and they are nearing hostile Bwaanag territory. Omakayas’s family is not only close, but growing: The travelers adopt two young chimookoman (white) orphans along the way. When treachery leaves them starving and alone in a northern Minnesota winter, it will take all of their abilities and love to survive. The heartwarming account of Omakayas’s year of travel explores her changing family relationships and culminates in her first moon, the onset of puberty. It would be understandable if this darkest-yet entry in Erdrich’s response to the Little House books were touched by bitterness, yet this gladdening story details Omakayas’s coming-of-age with appealing optimism.
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-06-029787-9
Page Count: 208
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2008
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