Sure to please fans of magical boarding school adventures.
A young witch searches for her missing aunt while attending her first year of magic school.
Spella De-broom Cauldroneyes, who’s just turned 8 and has bright blue freckles, was found as a baby by Mathilda Cauldroneyes, a green-skinned magical milliner. Also living in their house in Hungry Snout Forest are many anthropomorphic hats, from miniscule fairy hats to a giant hat that solves jigsaw puzzles. When Spella receives an invitation to attend Dragon’s Knob, a school for wand magic, she initially resists, not wanting to leave her beloved home. But when Aunt Cauldroneyes disappears into the maw of a hat that was dropped off for repairs by a mysterious wizard, Spella travels to the school in search of answers. Once there, she befriends a boy named Tolden Tutters, who uses a tiny dragon as a hearing aid, and studies topics such as the ancient languages of unicorns, all while trying to find information on her aunt’s whereabouts. This series opener is bursting at the seams with charming details such as cauldron-shaped windows and chocolate-flavored curtains. The characterization and plot development sometimes take a back seat to worldbuilding, but there’s enough action to keep readers invested in Spella’s quest to find her guardian, and the sheer charm of Spella’s world will win over fantasy lovers. Rubio’s spot art adds to the sense of whimsy.
Sure to please fans of magical boarding school adventures. (Fantasy. 7-11)Pub Date: Aug. 27, 2024
ISBN: 9781665955317
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 30, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2024
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
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