Tears and cheers abound in this endearing take on friendship.
Big changes nearly sever the friendships between three besties, but magical paper fortune tellers just might reunite them.
Even though their families are different in many ways, Nora, Bea, and Millie have been close since kindergarten at Shire, their “hippie” school in Manhattan. One memorable day in third grade, they discovered a brand of markers called Write Your Destiny at a stationery store and used them to make fortune tellers. But they got older, and eventually Nora decided that fortune tellers were babyish. Further cracks appeared when Nora attended wealthy Quinn’s birthday party—even though Quinn had publicly snubbed Bea and Millie. Angrily, the girls threw away their fortune tellers. These cracks turn into canyons when the Covid-19 pandemic brings remote schooling, and the girls’ families move away before their differences can be resolved. With seventh grade starting soon, the girls mysteriously start finding fortune tellers with messages pointing the way forward—and back to one another. The third-person narration rotates through each girl’s confusion and longing for old friends; the book also contains flashbacks to pivotal moments in their history. Greenwald sensitively captures the social dynamics of middle school, where popularity can take precedence over friendship. Readers will embrace the light magical element, but an appreciation of the real work needed to salvage the girls’ bonds won’t be lost on them, either. Main characters are cued white; Millie and Nora are Jewish.
Tears and cheers abound in this endearing take on friendship. (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: May 7, 2024
ISBN: 9780063255852
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 17, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2024
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs.
The Heffley family’s house undergoes a disastrous attempt at home improvement.
When Great Aunt Reba dies, she leaves some money to the family. Greg’s mom calls a family meeting to determine what to do with their share, proposing home improvements and then overruling the family’s cartoonish wish lists and instead pushing for an addition to the kitchen. Before bringing in the construction crew, the Heffleys attempt to do minor maintenance and repairs themselves—during which Greg fails at the work in various slapstick scenes. Once the professionals are brought in, the problems keep getting worse: angry neighbors, terrifying problems in walls, and—most serious—civil permitting issues that put the kibosh on what work’s been done. Left with only enough inheritance to patch and repair the exterior of the house—and with the school’s dismal standardized test scores as a final straw—Greg’s mom steers the family toward moving, opening up house-hunting and house-selling storylines (and devastating loyal Rowley, who doesn’t want to lose his best friend). While Greg’s positive about the move, he’s not completely uncaring about Rowley’s action. (And of course, Greg himself is not as unaffected as he wishes.) The gags include effectively placed callbacks to seemingly incidental events (the “stress lizard” brought in on testing day is particularly funny) and a lampoon of after-school-special–style problem books. Just when it seems that the Heffleys really will move, a new sequence of chaotic trouble and property destruction heralds a return to the status quo. Whew.
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs. (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 8-12)Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3903-3
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Nov. 18, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
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
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