Humorously over-the-top fare that will make a positive impact and inspire readers.
Willis, entrepreneurial fourth grade life coach, needs some help when it comes to his friendships.
Willis, introduced in Willis Wilbur Wows the World (2022), has found his destiny in helping other kids work through issues and identify their passions. Now he’s ready to expand and has ideas such as creating his own life coaching app. He’s even confident it will win the school’s Passion Fair competition. Willis lacks technology skills and can’t design it himself, but he’s sure his smart friends will partner with him to make his dream reality. To his absolute shock, they have other projects they want to pursue—separate from him! One even wants to do her project with the new kid whom Willis has declared his business competitor. This stand-alone story perfectly captures tween self-absorption. First-person narrator Willis would be unlikable if he didn’t reveal his insecurities so sensitively and often with humor. Happily, he’s open to feedback and gains in emotional intelligence. Willis does, after all, genuinely care about his friends and support them. This is a quick read with great tips for readers about friendship, the pitfalls of jealousy, and developing insight and confidence. Amusing black-and-white spot art enhances the narrative and shows Willis, who reads as White, and his racially diverse peers.
Humorously over-the-top fare that will make a positive impact and inspire readers. (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 27, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-593-22407-6
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: July 12, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2022
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
Telgemeier’s bold colors, superior visual storytelling, and unusual subject matter will keep readers emotionally engaged and...
Catrina narrates the story of her mixed-race (Latino/white) family’s move from Southern California to Bahía de la Luna on the Northern California coast.
Dad has a new job, but it’s little sister Maya’s lungs that motivate the move: she has had cystic fibrosis since birth—a degenerative breathing condition. Despite her health, Maya loves adventure, even if her lungs suffer for it and even when Cat must follow to keep her safe. When Carlos, a tall, brown, and handsome teen Ghost Tour guide introduces the sisters to the Bahía ghosts—most of whom were Spanish-speaking Mexicans when alive—they fascinate Maya and she them, but the terrified Cat wants only to get herself and Maya back to safety. When the ghost adventure leads to Maya’s hospitalization, Cat blames both herself and Carlos, which makes seeing him at school difficult. As Cat awakens to the meaning of Halloween and Day of the Dead in this strange new home, she comes to understand the importance of the ghosts both to herself and to Maya. Telgemeier neatly balances enough issues that a lesser artist would split them into separate stories and delivers as much delight textually as visually. The backmatter includes snippets from Telgemeier’s sketchbook and a photo of her in Día makeup.
Telgemeier’s bold colors, superior visual storytelling, and unusual subject matter will keep readers emotionally engaged and unable to put down this compelling tale. (Graphic fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 13, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-545-54061-2
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: July 1, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2016
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