A sympathetic and amusing account of a young anxiety sufferer navigating life changes.
While Penny adjusts to her noisy newborn siblings, she tries to figure out a complicated treasure map and even more complicated friendships and feelings.
Now that the twins are home from the hospital, Penny and little brother Juice Box are struggling to adjust; it’s tough with all the crying, plus a new babysitter. And Penny and Juice Box have to help choose names for the babies, and they can’t agree. Penny’s also trying to be OK with the fact that bestie Maria is studying for the spelling bee with mutual friend Chloe, though it makes her feel inadequate. The discovery of a bunch of unidentified keys helps Penny and her friends open the locked box they’d found in the attic, and the treasure map inside leads them to the most terrifying house in the neighborhood, where a witch supposedly lives. Amid all this, a school project forces Penny to consider what her own good qualities are. Though ex-friend Riley is still around to (mostly) antagonize Penny, Mrs. Hines, the Feelings Teacher, keeps helping her navigate all the upheaval. This third series entry offers yet more humor and genuine positivity along with an honest portrayal of how anxiety can affect young people. The third volume moves more quickly than the previous two, yet it maintains the wit and warmth (greatly supported by the charming black-and-white cartoon illustrations) that readers have come to expect from Penny’s escapades.
A sympathetic and amusing account of a young anxiety sufferer navigating life changes. (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: March 5, 2024
ISBN: 9780593616833
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: Dec. 16, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2024
A warm bundle of holiday cheer.
In a funny, feel-good tale, 12-year-old twins separated at birth meet by chance and try to pull off a family switch during the December holidays.
The girls, who are cued white, agree that it would be a delicious prank, but each has a personal motive, too: Aviva Davis, who was adopted by a culturally Jewish mom and a Black dad who was raised Christian, wonders what it’s like to celebrate Christmas. Budding author Holly Martin, who was adopted by a white-presenting single mom, sees a golden opportunity to gather experiences for a school writing assignment about facing her fears. In a plot as sweet as a Hanukkah jelly doughnut and twisty as a Christmas cinnamon roll, the pair just manages to bail one another out of a string of sticky situations—both hilarious and otherwise. They both learn something of the customs and meaning of the two holidays while working through tears and laughter—not to mention conflicts sparked by their very different personalities. Everything culminates in a holiday performance at a local senior center that will have readers rising up to cheer them on. Though their history remains tantalizingly mysterious, for the protagonists, who narrate alternating chapters, it’s mission accomplished and more: Aviva emerges feeling more secure in her Jewish identity, while anxious Holly discovers unexpected depths of courage.
A warm bundle of holiday cheer. (song lyrics) (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Oct. 29, 2024
ISBN: 9781250360670
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2024
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
PERSPECTIVES
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