A magical and delicious read that’s filled with love.
A Filipino American girl endeavors to save her family’s livelihood with a little bit of magic.
Twelve-year-old Mila Pascual and her dad help run the Banana Leaf, a Filipino Indian fusion food truck they own with their friends Mr. Ram and his nephew, Ajay, in Coral Beach, California. Following their recent move from suburban Los Angeles, Mila’s adjusting to being “the only chubby, short-black-haired, dark-brown-skinned Asian girl in a sea of beach mansion Barbies.” Her sister, Catalina, is attending college in LA, and her mom is caring for Mila’s grandfather in the Philippines. Mila loves inventing new recipes but feels less certain of her abilities with the albularyo, or folk healer, skills passed down through her mother’s line. Trouble comes when TV celebrity chefs Chip and Chaz, Mila’s idols, open their own Filipino and Indian restaurant in town—with menu items exactly matching the Banana Leaf’s. Mila and Ajay’s suspicions of sabotage are confirmed by a sudden health department inspection of the food truck following an anonymous complaint. The friends’ sleuthing also reveals the celebrities’ past shady behavior. Mila’s albularyo potions might help save the day, if only she can believe enough in the magic she creates to make it work. Badua sensitively explores Mila’s struggles with cultural identity and a sense of belonging in relation to both family and peers, particularly as her experiences with marginalization diverge from Catalina’s. The ending neatly ties up all the loose ends.
A magical and delicious read that’s filled with love. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: May 9, 2023
ISBN: 9780358671732
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Clarion/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: April 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Is this the end? Well, no…the series will stagger on through at least one more scheduled sequel.
Sure signs that the creative wells are running dry at last, the Captain’s ninth, overstuffed outing both recycles a villain (see Book 4) and offers trendy anti-bullying wish fulfillment.
Not that there aren’t pranks and envelope-pushing quips aplenty. To start, in an alternate ending to the previous episode, Principal Krupp ends up in prison (“…a lot like being a student at Jerome Horwitz Elementary School, except that the prison had better funding”). There, he witnesses fellow inmate Tippy Tinkletrousers (aka Professor Poopypants) escape in a giant Robo-Suit (later reduced to time-traveling trousers). The villain sets off after George and Harold, who are in juvie (“not much different from our old school…except that they have library books here.”). Cut to five years previous, in a prequel to the whole series. George and Harold link up in kindergarten to reduce a quartet of vicious bullies to giggling insanity with a relentless series of pranks involving shaving cream, spiders, effeminate spoof text messages and friendship bracelets. Pilkey tucks both topical jokes and bathroom humor into the cartoon art, and ups the narrative’s lexical ante with terms like “pharmaceuticals” and “theatrical flair.” Unfortunately, the bullies’ sad fates force Krupp to resign, so he’s not around to save the Earth from being destroyed later on by Talking Toilets and other invaders…
Is this the end? Well, no…the series will stagger on through at least one more scheduled sequel. (Fantasy. 10-12)Pub Date: Aug. 28, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-545-17534-0
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: June 19, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Charming, poignant, and thoughtfully woven.
An aspiring scientist and a budding artist become friends and help each other with dream projects.
Unfolding in mid-1980s Sacramento, California, this story stars 12-year-olds Rosalind and Benjamin as first-person narrators in alternating chapters. Ro’s father, a fellow space buff, was killed by a drunk driver; the rocket they were working on together lies unfinished in her closet. As for Benji, not only has his best friend, Amir, moved away, but the comic book holding the clue for locating his dad is also missing. Along with their profound personal losses, the protagonists share a fixation with the universe’s intriguing potential: Ro decides to complete the rocket and hopes to launch mementos of her father into outer space while Benji’s conviction that aliens and UFOs are real compels his imagination and creativity as an artist. An accident in science class triggers a chain of events forcing Benji and Ro, who is new to the school, to interact and unintentionally learn each other’s secrets. They resolve to find Benji’s dad—a famous comic-book artist—and partner to finish Ro’s rocket for the science fair. Together, they overcome technical, scheduling, and geographical challenges. Readers will be drawn in by amusing and fantastical elements in the comic book theme, high emotional stakes that arouse sympathy, and well-drawn character development as the protagonists navigate life lessons around grief, patience, self-advocacy, and standing up for others. Ro is biracial (Chinese/White); Benji is White.
Charming, poignant, and thoughtfully woven. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Jan. 12, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-06-300888-5
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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