Good-hearted sporty fun.
A talented young soccer player leaves the recreational league for a more competitive team and discovers a different sports culture.
Ben Cutler loves playing soccer with his best friend, Jay-Jay Wright, in the Pizza League. Their team, the Anchovies, celebrate their goals with silly dances and enjoy postgame snacks, win or lose. But when Coach Cleary invites Ben to play for the West Harbor Soccer Academy, Ben finds a much more serious and less fun environment. He feels nervous before games and is surprised and confused by the “no joking around in soccer” attitude of both coach and players; charts listing the differences between West Harbor and the Pizza League are featured throughout. “Host-slash-narrator-slash-play-by-play man” Freddy introduces the Good Sports League series and pops up in graphic novel–style illustrations interspersed throughout; many readers will appreciate a break from the text, while some might find the switch between formats jarring. Freddy states the moral up front—sports should be enjoyable—and this fast-paced, heartfelt story bears out the message. The story closes out with fun activities, including an invitation for readers to create their own sporty nicknames, a sports quiz, and space for readers to write down a list of their goals in life. Ben presents white in the dynamic grayscale illustrations, while Jay-Jay is Black, and Freddy appears to be brown-skinned. Secondary characters are diverse.
Good-hearted sporty fun. (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: April 11, 2023
ISBN: 9781419763656
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2023
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
SEEN & HEARD
A real gem.
A 10-year old girl learns to adjust to a strange town, makes some fascinating friends, and fills the empty space in her heart thanks to a big old stray dog in this lyrical, moving, and enchanting book by a fresh new voice.
India Opal’s mama left when she was only three, and her father, “the preacher,” is absorbed in his own loss and in the work of his new ministry at the Open-Arms Baptist Church of Naomi [Florida]. Enter Winn-Dixie, a dog who “looked like a big piece of old brown carpet that had been left out in the rain.” But, this dog had a grin “so big that it made him sneeze.” And, as Opal says, “It’s hard not to immediately fall in love with a dog who has a good sense of humor.” Because of Winn-Dixie, Opal meets Miss Franny Block, an elderly lady whose papa built her a library of her own when she was just a little girl and she’s been the librarian ever since. Then, there’s nearly blind Gloria Dump, who hangs the empty bottle wreckage of her past from the mistake tree in her back yard. And, Otis, oh yes, Otis, whose music charms the gerbils, rabbits, snakes and lizards he’s let out of their cages in the pet store. Brush strokes of magical realism elevate this beyond a simple story of friendship to a well-crafted tale of community and fellowship, of sweetness, sorrow and hope. And, it’s funny, too.
A real gem. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: March 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-7636-0776-2
Page Count: 182
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2000
SEEN & HEARD
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