It’s smooth sailing for this earnest and upbeat series.
Caitlin’s second cruise is off to a stormy start.
Caitlin Cruz is still adjusting to her parents’ recent divorce, which threatens to turn the annual family trip to Disney World into two separate visits. Although her anxieties continue to nag at her, Caitlin sets herself a positive goal—to become a people person. She has the perfect opportunity to make that objective a reality: Before the Disney trip, she and her older brother, Dylan, will be spending another week on the Wandering Princess, where their father has a summer job as ship’s doctor. The Fancy Feline Society of North Carolina and their 264 cats will be aboard, but chaos looms as everyone suddenly realizes that the Greater Florida Kennel Club—with their 236 dogs—has also booked the cruise. Readers of the first series installment will welcome the return of familiar characters such as Max and Olivia (grandchildren of the ship’s chef) and glamorous former actor Gigi and her toy poodle, Pearl. The pet-propelled plot is lively, if a bit implausible, though Eschmann’s emphasis on her protagonist’s feelings keeps it grounded. Caitlin and the other kids’ resentment at the cruise staff’s refusal to listen to their ideas will resonate, while excerpts from Caitlin’s What If journal, where she chronicles her worries and wild speculations, make for delightful interludes. Characters’ ethnicities aren’t mentioned; the previous installment cued Caitlin and Dylan as Latine.
It’s smooth sailing for this earnest and upbeat series. (Chapter book. 7-10)Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2025
ISBN: 9781339018171
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Dec. 14, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
A fitting farewell, still funny, acute, and positive in its view of human nature even in its 37th episode.
A long-running series reaches its closing chapters.
Having, as Kline notes in her warm valedictory acknowledgements, taken 30 years to get through second and third grade, Harry Spooger is overdue to move on—but not just into fourth grade, it turns out, as his family is moving to another town as soon as the school year ends. The news leaves his best friend, narrator “Dougo,” devastated…particularly as Harry doesn’t seem all that fussed about it. With series fans in mind, the author takes Harry through a sort of last-day-of-school farewell tour. From his desk he pulls a burned hot dog and other items that featured in past episodes, says goodbye to Song Lee and other classmates, and even (for the first time ever) leads Doug and readers into his house and memento-strewn room for further reminiscing. Of course, Harry isn’t as blasé about the move as he pretends, and eyes aren’t exactly dry when he departs. But hardly is he out of sight before Doug is meeting Mohammad, a new neighbor from Syria who (along with further diversifying a cast that began as mostly white but has become increasingly multiethnic over the years) will also be starting fourth grade at summer’s end, and planning a written account of his “horrible” buddy’s exploits. Finished illustrations not seen.
A fitting farewell, still funny, acute, and positive in its view of human nature even in its 37th episode. (Fiction. 7-9)Pub Date: Nov. 27, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-451-47963-1
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Sept. 16, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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