Silly shoes and villainous caprices fail to sustain a book of this length.
Can the Foot family win a footwear design competition against the terrible Wendy Wedge and win the Golden Shoe Award?
Ruby and Bear live in the Shoebox neighborhood in Shoe Town with their Dad, Ivor Foot, in a house shaped like a shoebox. Ivor ran a shoe shop making amazing footwear designed by his wife, Sally, but after Sally died in a mysterious accident, Ivor became the victim of the evil Wendy Wedge, a jealous rival shoemaker and de facto owner of Shoe Town. Wendy made Ivor sign over the rights to all their property and designs, then demolished the shop—although Dad secretly managed to save a pair of Sally’s flying shoes. Aided by his plucky kids, resourceful Dad develops a plan to foil Wendy and win the coveted Golden Shoe Award. Complex hijinks ensue ad nauseam. Although the cartoony, black-and-white line illustrations and funky use of typography lend visual variety to the pages, the book is, fundamentally, too long. The introduction of shoemakers Betty Boot and Bert Brogue, who offer support to the children and help with the competition, does not alleviate the monotony of the thin plot and repetitious shoe humor. The Foot family and Wendy appear to be White; Betty and Bert read as Black.
Silly shoes and villainous caprices fail to sustain a book of this length. (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: March 2, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-338-65474-5
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Dec. 23, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 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
PERSPECTIVES
SEEN & HEARD
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