A lightly magical story that thoughtfully explores friendship and developing a strong sense of self.
If only making a best friend were as easy as making jewelry.
Zariah Brown, a Black 12-year-old, is a friendship bracelet master—the ones she makes are popular at Hurston Middle School. She’s busy fulfilling bracelet orders, trying not to attract negative attention (her brother says that clumsiness is her superpower), and keeping up her straight A grades, but Zariah secretly longs for a best friend; she hasn’t had one since a painful incident two years ago. It’s hard to see Naomi, her former best friend, always hanging out with another classmate, Kaira. When Kaira orders a bracelet for Naomi, the despondent Zariah heads to her favorite shop, Flaming Heart, for supplies. The eccentric shop owner gifts her with a special set of beads, which Zariah later discovers will instantly make anyone her best friend. She quickly finds herself on an emotional roller coaster as she learns about the drawbacks of forced relationships and searches for the perfect best friend before an upcoming school event that’s just highlighting how alone she feels. Collier shows readers the importance of being yourself and not changing just to fit in. Zariah finds herself in situations where she must decide how to proceed and whether she wants to change to blend in. Text messages with her father, who travels a lot, offer great advice for tweens. The story also touches on the effects of social media.
A lightly magical story that thoughtfully explores friendship and developing a strong sense of self. (best friend bracelet profile) (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Oct. 15, 2024
ISBN: 9780063326163
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Aug. 3, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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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