A school story that’s full of heart.
A challenging fourth grader faces the “meanest and nastiest” teacher in the school.
Readers will recognize Carter Avery when he blurts out a rude question about the port-wine stain on Ms. Krane’s face in their first meeting. He’s the kid with no filters. He struggles with writing. But, like Mr. Terupt in Buyea’s popular series, Ms. Krane knows how to deal with even the most difficult kids. She has challenges besides wiggly Carter and his nemesis, “bossy” Missy Gerber. Some parents don’t approve of Ms. Krane’s choice to have a baby as an unmarried woman. Buyea weaves all these elements into a suspenseful account of Carter’s year, told in the boy’s believable first-person voice. Readers will fill in the blanks in his unreliable narration, because they know kids like him—they may even share many of his difficulties. Carter doesn’t have friends among his classmates, but he does have caring adults in his life: the grandmother who’s raised him since his parents died, bus driver Mr. Wilson, and Farmer Don, whose eggs Carter and Grams buy. They’re patient with his behavior and his questions. They help him (and readers) understand donor insemination and why judgmental gossip is a problem. Carter decides that his secret mission will be sticking up for Ms. Krane as she has stuck up for him: becoming a good student and proving she’s a good teacher. His success is gratifying. Most characters present white.
A school story that’s full of heart. (Fiction. 8-11)Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2024
ISBN: 9780593376188
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2024
However the compelling fitness of theme and event and the apt but unexpected imagery (the opening sentences compare the...
At a time when death has become an acceptable, even voguish subject in children's fiction, Natalie Babbitt comes through with a stylistic gem about living forever.
Protected Winnie, the ten-year-old heroine, is not immortal, but when she comes upon young Jesse Tuck drinking from a secret spring in her parents' woods, she finds herself involved with a family who, having innocently drunk the same water some 87 years earlier, haven't aged a moment since. Though the mood is delicate, there is no lack of action, with the Tucks (previously suspected of witchcraft) now pursued for kidnapping Winnie; Mae Tuck, the middle aged mother, striking and killing a stranger who is onto their secret and would sell the water; and Winnie taking Mae's place in prison so that the Tucks can get away before she is hanged from the neck until....? Though Babbitt makes the family a sad one, most of their reasons for discontent are circumstantial and there isn't a great deal of wisdom to be gleaned from their fate or Winnie's decision not to share it.
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1975
ISBN: 0312369816
Page Count: 164
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: April 13, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1975
Ironically, by choosing such a dramatic catalyst, the author weakens the adventure’s impact overall and leaves readers to...
A group of talking farm animals catches wind of the farm owner’s intention to burn the barn (with them in it) for insurance money and hatches a plan to flee.
Bond begins briskly—within the first 10 pages, barn cat Burdock has overheard Dewey Baxter’s nefarious plan, and by Page 17, all of the farm animals have been introduced and Burdock is sharing the terrifying news. Grady, Dewey’s (ever-so-slightly) more principled brother, refuses to go along, but instead of standing his ground, he simply disappears. This leaves the animals to fend for themselves. They do so by relying on their individual strengths and one another. Their talents and personalities match their species, bringing an element of realism to balance the fantasy elements. However, nothing can truly compensate for the bland horror of the premise. Not the growing sense of family among the animals, the serendipitous intervention of an unknown inhabitant of the barn, nor the convenient discovery of an alternate home. Meanwhile, Bond’s black-and-white drawings, justly compared to those of Garth Williams, amplify the sense of dissonance. Charming vignettes and single- and double-page illustrations create a pastoral world into which the threat of large-scale violence comes as a shock.
Ironically, by choosing such a dramatic catalyst, the author weakens the adventure’s impact overall and leaves readers to ponder the awkward coincidences that propel the plot. (Animal fantasy. 8-10)Pub Date: July 7, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-544-33217-1
Page Count: 256
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: March 31, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2015
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
