An unassuming summer-camp story about being yourself.
Angelica, also known as Jelly, is a great storyteller, but this time her imagination could get her into a heap of trouble in this series opener.
Jelly’s best audience is her friend Maddie, who always believes her stories, but this summer Jelly is going to sleepaway camp without her. At camp, Jelly finds herself living in a doozy of a story: she is Princess Angelica, whose “auntie Kate,” the Duchess of Cambridge, goes to all of her birthday parties; who rides the crocodiles in the castle moat; and who can have milkshakes whenever she wants. Jelly, via her frank first-person narration, contemplates whether or not to tell the truth, but she fears the other girls won’t think she’s so special if they know the real Jelly. Also, she loves being called “Your Majesty” and having the others happily do her chores. When Maddie joins the camp and blows Jelly’s cover, Jelly must earn friendship by being herself. Although Jelly’s mother disapproves of her father’s habit of calling her “Princess” because it reinforces gender stereotypes and snobbishness, Princess Angelica is a kind feminist who makes castle repairs and befriends all who meet her. The black-and-white illustrations suggest Jelly is mixed-race; Joon, one of her bunkmates, is Asian; other characters seem to be white.
An unassuming summer-camp story about being yourself. (Fiction. 7-10)Pub Date: Jan. 23, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4598-1538-4
Page Count: 108
Publisher: Orca
Review Posted Online: Oct. 9, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2017
Alert readers will find the implicit morals: know your audience, mostly, but also never underestimate the power of “rock”...
The theme of persistence (for better or worse) links four tales of magic, trickery, and near disasters.
Lachenmeyer freely borrows familiar folkloric elements, subjecting them to mildly comical twists. In the nearly wordless “Hip Hop Wish,” a frog inadvertently rubs a magic lamp and finds itself saddled with an importunate genie eager to shower it with inappropriate goods and riches. In the title tale, an increasingly annoyed music-hating witch transforms a persistent minstrel into a still-warbling cow, horse, sheep, goat, pig, duck, and rock in succession—then is horrified to catch herself humming a tune. Athesius the sorcerer outwits Warthius, a rival trying to steal his spells via a parrot, by casting silly ones in Ig-pay Atin-lay in the third episode, and in the finale, a painter’s repeated efforts to create a flattering portrait of an ogre king nearly get him thrown into a dungeon…until he suddenly understands what an ogre’s idea of “flattering” might be. The narratives, dialogue, and sound effects leave plenty of elbow room in Blocker’s big, brightly colored panels for the expressive animal and human(ish) figures—most of the latter being light skinned except for the golden genie, the blue ogre, and several people of color in the “Sorcerer’s New Pet.”
Alert readers will find the implicit morals: know your audience, mostly, but also never underestimate the power of “rock” music. (Graphic short stories. 8-10)Pub Date: June 18, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-59643-750-0
Page Count: 112
Publisher: First Second
Review Posted Online: April 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2019
An uncomplicated opener, with some funny bits and a clear but not heavy agenda.
Hank Zipzer, poster boy for dyslexic middle graders everywhere, stars in a new prequel series highlighting second-grade trials and triumphs.
Hank’s hopes of playing Aqua Fly, a comic-book character, in the upcoming class play founder when, despite plenty of coaching and preparation, he freezes up during tryouts. He is not particularly comforted when his sympathetic teacher adds a nonspeaking role as a bookmark to the play just for him. Following the pattern laid down in his previous appearances as an older child, he gets plenty of help and support from understanding friends (including Ashley Wong, a new apartment-house neighbor). He even manages to turn lemons into lemonade with a quick bit of improv when Nick “the Tick” McKelty, the sneering classmate who took his preferred role, blanks on his lines during the performance. As the aforementioned bully not only chokes in the clutch and gets a demeaning nickname, but is fat, boastful and eats like a pig, the authors’ sensitivity is rather one-sided. Still, Hank has a winning way of bouncing back from adversity, and like the frequent black-and-white line-and-wash drawings, the typeface is designed with easy legibility in mind.
An uncomplicated opener, with some funny bits and a clear but not heavy agenda. (Fiction. 7-9)Pub Date: Feb. 14, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-448-48239-2
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Grosset & Dunlap
Review Posted Online: Dec. 10, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2014
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