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THE BUBBLE WRAP BOY

Name: THE BUBBLE WRAP BOY
Author: Phil Earle
ISBN: 978-0-553-51315-8

by Phil Earle ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 13, 2015

As much as Charlie would hate hearing it, good things do come in small packages.

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Fourteen-year-old Charlie Han, aka “Tiny Charlie,” aka “the Chinese midget,” is used to being bully bait, the lethal combination of his oddly small stature and klutziness making him a shoe-in for the worst junior high has to offer.

It doesn’t help that his mother is overprotective to the point of smothering or that he’s unsure whether “Sinus” Sedgley is his best friend or just an equally bullied buddy by default. All Charlie wants to do is find his “thing,” that special something that will finally make the kids at school see him, truly, for the first time. A newfound love of skateboarding may just be that thing, and, together with a real friend, it offers him a chance to soar. Charlie’s narration is both laugh-out-loud funny and heartbreaking. He may be small, but his determination to change his lot in life is enormous. Though a secondary plotline meant to explain his mother’s extreme overprotectiveness is slightly difficult to swallow, the rest of the story more than makes up for it. In the fast-growing bullying genre, Charlie’s story stands out. This isn’t a kid who will do anything to join the cool clique. This is a story about staying true to yourself and following your passion.

As much as Charlie would hate hearing it, good things do come in small packages. (Fiction. 9-14)

Pub Date: Oct. 13, 2015

ISBN: 978-0-553-51315-8

Page Count: 288

Publisher: Delacorte

Review Posted Online: July 14, 2015

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2015

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S FAMILY

- BOOK REVIEW
WHEN THE SKY FALLS
by Phil Earle

- BOOK REVIEW
GET ME OUT OF HERE!
by Andy McNab & Phil Earle ; illustrated by Robin Boydon

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SEE YOU IN THE COSMOS

by Jack Cheng ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 28, 2017

Riveting, inspiring, and sometimes hilarious.

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If you made a recording to be heard by the aliens who found the iPod, what would you record?

For 11-year-old Alex Petroski, it's easy. He records everything. He records the story of how he travels to New Mexico to a rocket festival with his dog, Carl Sagan, and his rocket. He records finding out that a man with the same name and birthday as his dead father has an address in Las Vegas. He records eating at Johnny Rockets for the first time with his new friends, who are giving him a ride to find his dead father (who might not be dead!), and losing Carl Sagan in the wilds of Las Vegas, and discovering he has a half sister. He even records his own awful accident. Cheng delivers a sweet, soulful debut novel with a brilliant, refreshing structure. His characters manage to come alive through the “transcript” of Alex’s iPod recording, an odd medium that sounds like it would be confusing but really works. Taking inspiration from the Voyager Golden Record released to space in 1977, Alex, who explains he has “light brown skin,” records all the important moments of a journey that takes him from a family of two to a family of plenty.

Riveting, inspiring, and sometimes hilarious. (Fiction. 10-14)

Pub Date: Feb. 28, 2017

ISBN: 978-0-399-18637-0

Page Count: 320

Publisher: Dial Books

Review Posted Online: Oct. 18, 2016

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2016

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S FAMILY

- BOOK REVIEW
THE MANY MASKS OF ANDY ZHOU
by Jack Cheng ; illustrated by Jack Cheng

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HOLES

by Louis Sachar ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 1998

Good Guys and Bad get just deserts in the end, and Stanley gets plenty of opportunities to display pluck and valor in this...

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Sentenced to a brutal juvenile detention camp for a crime he didn't commit, a wimpy teenager turns four generations of bad family luck around in this sunburnt tale of courage, obsession, and buried treasure from Sachar (Wayside School Gets a Little Stranger, 1995, etc.).

Driven mad by the murder of her black beau, a schoolteacher turns on the once-friendly, verdant town of Green Lake, Texas, becomes feared bandit Kissin' Kate Barlow, and dies, laughing, without revealing where she buried her stash. A century of rainless years later, lake and town are memories—but, with the involuntary help of gangs of juvenile offenders, the last descendant of the last residents is still digging. Enter Stanley Yelnats IV, great-grandson of one of Kissin' Kate's victims and the latest to fall to the family curse of being in the wrong place at the wrong time; under the direction of The Warden, a woman with rattlesnake venom polish on her long nails, Stanley and each of his fellow inmates dig a hole a day in the rock-hard lake bed. Weeks of punishing labor later, Stanley digs up a clue, but is canny enough to conceal the information of which hole it came from. Through flashbacks, Sachar weaves a complex net of hidden relationships and well-timed revelations as he puts his slightly larger-than-life characters under a sun so punishing that readers will be reaching for water bottles.

Good Guys and Bad get just deserts in the end, and Stanley gets plenty of opportunities to display pluck and valor in this rugged, engrossing adventure. (Fiction. 9-13)