A solid middle-grade mystery laced with leads for aspiring newshounds.
When a flood causes major damage to the school, Izzy uses her podcast to figure out what happened.
Canadian sixth grader Izzy Wong is ready for her next story. An aspiring reporter, she’s been producing podcasts in order to hone her journalism skills. When a bathroom flood ruins everything in Ms. Berenstein’s classroom and several books in the library, Izzy’s sure she can find an angle worth exploring. At first, the flood seems to be the result of pipes that have fallen into disrepair. Soon, however, Izzy discovers that the flood was no accident; all four toilets in the girls’ bathroom were intentionally clogged, and the staff seem to know more than they’re willing to reveal. As her podcast audience grows, ambitious Izzy finds herself bending the rules of ethical reporting to keep everyone listening. With an age-appropriate love triangle, multiple suspects, and discussions about the difference between news and gossip, Izzy’s investigation has much to keep young readers engaged. Careful descriptions of the technical side of podcasting and insights from Izzy’s broadcast journalist mother offer an entry point to anyone curious about following in Izzy’s footsteps. Though physical descriptions are limited, the last name Wong suggests that Izzy is of Chinese descent.
A solid middle-grade mystery laced with leads for aspiring newshounds. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Sept. 17, 2024
ISBN: 9781459839373
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Orca
Review Posted Online: May 17, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2024
During a school year in which a gifted teacher who emphasizes personal responsibility among his fifth graders ends up in a coma from a thrown snowball, his students come to terms with their own issues and learn to be forgiving. Told in short chapters organized month-by-month in the voices of seven students, often describing the same incident from different viewpoints, this weaves together a variety of not-uncommon classroom characters and situations: the new kid, the trickster, the social bully, the super-bright and the disaffected; family clashes, divorce and death; an unwed mother whose long-ago actions haven't been forgotten in the small-town setting; class and experiential differences. Mr. Terupt engineers regular visits to the school’s special-needs classroom, changing some lives on both sides. A "Dollar Word" activity so appeals to Luke that he sprinkles them throughout his narrative all year. Danielle includes her regular prayers, and Anna never stops her hopeful matchmaking. No one is perfect in this feel-good story, but everyone benefits, including sentimentally inclined readers. (Fiction. 9-12)
Pub Date: Oct. 12, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-385-73882-8
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: Sept. 1, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2010
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Charming, poignant, and thoughtfully woven.
An aspiring scientist and a budding artist become friends and help each other with dream projects.
Unfolding in mid-1980s Sacramento, California, this story stars 12-year-olds Rosalind and Benjamin as first-person narrators in alternating chapters. Ro’s father, a fellow space buff, was killed by a drunk driver; the rocket they were working on together lies unfinished in her closet. As for Benji, not only has his best friend, Amir, moved away, but the comic book holding the clue for locating his dad is also missing. Along with their profound personal losses, the protagonists share a fixation with the universe’s intriguing potential: Ro decides to complete the rocket and hopes to launch mementos of her father into outer space while Benji’s conviction that aliens and UFOs are real compels his imagination and creativity as an artist. An accident in science class triggers a chain of events forcing Benji and Ro, who is new to the school, to interact and unintentionally learn each other’s secrets. They resolve to find Benji’s dad—a famous comic-book artist—and partner to finish Ro’s rocket for the science fair. Together, they overcome technical, scheduling, and geographical challenges. Readers will be drawn in by amusing and fantastical elements in the comic book theme, high emotional stakes that arouse sympathy, and well-drawn character development as the protagonists navigate life lessons around grief, patience, self-advocacy, and standing up for others. Ro is biracial (Chinese/White); Benji is White.
Charming, poignant, and thoughtfully woven. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Jan. 12, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-06-300888-5
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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