Nine-year-old Caroline Malloy is green with envy; her ten-year-old sister, Beth, is in love. As a budding actress, Caroline wants the experience of love or tragedy just to add to her repertoire. Fans of the series about these neighbors will roll with laughter as she attempts to force Wally Hatford to fall in love with her. When a new sweater doesn’t get a wild reaction, she seeks out the juiciest valentine and signs it “Achingly yours,” with rows of X’s and O’s. The oldest sister, Eddie, thinks only about the upcoming sixth-grade science fair; for her project, she sets out to prove that boys are more gullible than girls. She capitalizes on her town’s present fear of the “abaguchie,” the nickname they’ve given to a mysterious creature that prowls around the vicinity after dark. If Eddie claimed she’d captured the abaguchie in their garage, would more boys or girls come to see it? Ever the actress, Caroline designs a fearsome abaguchie costume and the girls hand-stuff secretive invitations in their schoolmates’ pockets. Unaware of the premise, the Hatford boys are even enlisted to record the names and ages of those who attend. The results delight the girls—twice as many boys as girls show up, proving that boys are the more gullible sex. Beth’s beau, Josh Hatford, tries to deny his interest in Beth to save face with his brothers, but when he enlists the help of his youngest brother, Peter, to deliver a box of Whitman’s chocolates to Beth’s door, the results backfire. The description of Peter deftly breaking into the box to nibble and poke away at chocolate after chocolate while the girls watch in disbelief from a safe outpost will make the reader’s sides hurt. All in all, a terrific sequel to a long list of winners. (Fiction. 9-12)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-385-32336-0
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2000
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
Entrancing and uplifting.
A small dog, the elderly woman who owns him, and a homeless girl come together to create a tale of serendipity.
Piper, almost 12, her parents, and her younger brother are at the bottom of a long slide toward homelessness. Finally in a family shelter, Piper finds that her newfound safety gives her the opportunity to reach out to someone who needs help even more. Jewel, mentally ill, lives in the park with her dog, Baby. Unwilling to leave her pet, and forbidden to enter the shelter with him, she struggles with the winter weather. Ree, also homeless and with a large dog, helps when she can, but after Jewel gets sick and is hospitalized, Baby’s taken to the animal shelter, and Ree can’t manage the complex issues alone. It’s Piper, using her best investigative skills, who figures out Jewel’s backstory. Still, she needs all the help of the shelter Firefly Girls troop that she joins to achieve her accomplishment: to raise enough money to provide Jewel and Baby with a secure, hopeful future and, maybe, with their kindness, to inspire a happier story for Ree. Told in the authentic alternating voices of loving child and loyal dog, this tale could easily slump into a syrupy melodrama, but Pyron lets her well-drawn characters earn their believable happy ending, step by challenging step, by reaching out and working together. Piper, her family, and Jewel present white; Pyron uses hair and naming convention, respectively, to cue Ree as black and Piper’s friend Gabriela as Latinx.
Entrancing and uplifting. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Aug. 13, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-06-283922-0
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: April 9, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2019
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