Equally sound as inspiration and writing advice, this tale fits neatly in Polacco’s oeuvre.
There are now a half-dozen stories by Polacco about teachers who made a difference for her as she grew up. This one is about “Killer Keller,” who never gave an A to anyone and whose students did not always last out the semester.
Young Patricia is honored to be chosen for Miss Keller’s writing class, but she is also intimidated by the teacher’s booming, Southern-accented voice and imperious manner. Young would-be writers will be awed, as Patricia was, by Miss Keller’s regal bearing, red lipstick, long red fingernails, and by her uncompromising approach. For her first homework assignment for Miss Keller, Patricia writes an essay, pouring out three pages of affectionate details about her family and home. She is stung to have her “masterpiece” dismissed due to a surfeit of “love”s. Patricia’s next-door neighbor, Pop, a retired baker, comforts her at the end of the day and tells her a story of Killer Keller, Pop’s thesaurus, and one of Pop’s own sons. How Patricia eventually earns that A is as heart-tugging as all of Polacco’s family-based tales; it is sentimental to be sure, but it is brought to life by the author’s pencil-and-marker illustrations, featuring her characteristically exaggerated and expressive line and color. Patricia’s dejection and subsequent triumph come through loud and clear.
Equally sound as inspiration and writing advice, this tale fits neatly in Polacco’s oeuvre. (Picture book. 6-12)Pub Date: Sept. 29, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-399-16691-4
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 11, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2015
It’s hard to argue with success, but guides that actually do the math will be more useful to budding capitalists.
How to raise money for a coveted poster: put your friends to work!
John, founder of the FUBU fashion line and a Shark Tank venture capitalist, offers a self-referential blueprint for financial success. Having only half of the $10 he needs for a Minka J poster, Daymond forks over $1 to buy a plain T-shirt, paints a picture of the pop star on it, sells it for $5, and uses all of his cash to buy nine more shirts. Then he recruits three friends to decorate them with his design and help sell them for an unspecified amount (from a conveniently free and empty street-fair booth) until they’re gone. The enterprising entrepreneur reimburses himself for the shirts and splits the remaining proceeds, which leaves him with enough for that poster as well as a “brand-new business book,” while his friends express other fiscal strategies: saving their share, spending it all on new art supplies, or donating part and buying a (math) book with the rest. (In a closing summation, the author also suggests investing in stocks, bonds, or cryptocurrency.) Though Miles cranks up the visual energy in her sparsely detailed illustrations by incorporating bright colors and lots of greenbacks, the actual advice feels a bit vague. Daymond is Black; most of the cast are people of color. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
It’s hard to argue with success, but guides that actually do the math will be more useful to budding capitalists. (Picture book. 7-9)Pub Date: March 21, 2023
ISBN: 978-0-593-56727-2
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2023
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
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