A compelling work whose intriguing characters readers will miss when they turn the last page.
The highly anticipated conclusion to Cline-Ransome’s Finding Langston trilogy.
Small but smart, Clemson Thurber Jr. has acquired resilience from dealing with his two teenage sisters, who barely tolerate him. Now 9, Clem has lost his father in San Francisco’s 1944 Port Chicago Disaster that killed 320 sailors, most of them Black, who were loading ammunition onto ships. Because of Chicago’s employment discrimination, Clem’s widowed mother works as a domestic to a White family despite her college education. Although Clem believes his mother wants him to follow his Daddy into the Navy, he must face his utter terror of swimming; the water makes him think of his father’s death. Clem befriends a music-loving school bully—the eponymous protagonist of Leaving Lymon (2020)—and appreciates the protection that grants, but when “Country Boy” Langston of Finding Langston (2018) becomes Lymon’s target, Clem starts doubting the ethics of tormenting nice kids. A fight over a book and the discovery of their mutual love of the library seal Clem and Langston’s friendship. A sensitive, bookish budding geographer and cartographer, Clem ultimately honors the moral compass his parents have instilled in him. Like the other two entries, this novel with its parallel narrative addresses tough situations with care, including parental grief and depression, the threat of eviction, domestic abuse, the emotional and physical abuse of children, the impact of racism, and negotiating problematic friendships.
A compelling work whose intriguing characters readers will miss when they turn the last page. (author's note) (Historical fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Aug. 3, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-8234-4604-9
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: May 31, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2021
A warm bundle of holiday cheer.
In a funny, feel-good tale, 12-year-old twins separated at birth meet by chance and try to pull off a family switch during the December holidays.
The girls, who are cued white, agree that it would be a delicious prank, but each has a personal motive, too: Aviva Davis, who was adopted by a culturally Jewish mom and a Black dad who was raised Christian, wonders what it’s like to celebrate Christmas. Budding author Holly Martin, who was adopted by a white-presenting single mom, sees a golden opportunity to gather experiences for a school writing assignment about facing her fears. In a plot as sweet as a Hanukkah jelly doughnut and twisty as a Christmas cinnamon roll, the pair just manages to bail one another out of a string of sticky situations—both hilarious and otherwise. They both learn something of the customs and meaning of the two holidays while working through tears and laughter—not to mention conflicts sparked by their very different personalities. Everything culminates in a holiday performance at a local senior center that will have readers rising up to cheer them on. Though their history remains tantalizingly mysterious, for the protagonists, who narrate alternating chapters, it’s mission accomplished and more: Aviva emerges feeling more secure in her Jewish identity, while anxious Holly discovers unexpected depths of courage.
A warm bundle of holiday cheer. (song lyrics) (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Oct. 29, 2024
ISBN: 9781250360670
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2024
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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