Warm family stories laced with some sorrow and great joy.
Three children, one baby, and a dog share a special time during World War II.
Two sisters, their widowed father, and their dog who is “too scared to go in the ocean” are spending a wartime summer at a small beach town in Long Island, New York. Julie Sweet is 11, and her sister, Martha, is 6. Next-door neighbor Bruno Ben-Eli is 12 and has an older brother fighting overseas. The story opens with great drama as Julie finds a baby in a basket at the about-to-open children’s library. Martha thinks that the baby is a doll, and Bruno, who is on his way to the train station to deliver a secret letter for his brother, finds an envelope that came with the well-cared-for baby. The three children each tell their stories in short, alternating chapters with very engaging voices, dialogue expressed in all-capital letters. Bruno is trying to sort out the whole girl thing while Julie claims that she “doesn’t even like boys that much.” Both families are strong and loving even as Bruno’s mother frets about her older son. In a short time, the library will be dedicated with a very special lady visitor from Washington, D.C., in attendance. Hest balances foreground action against background deftly: The mystery of the baby will be a happy reveal, and the war will continue. The characters all present white.
Warm family stories laced with some sorrow and great joy. (Historical fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Aug. 4, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-7636-6007-9
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: March 24, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
During a school year in which a gifted teacher who emphasizes personal responsibility among his fifth graders ends up in a coma from a thrown snowball, his students come to terms with their own issues and learn to be forgiving. Told in short chapters organized month-by-month in the voices of seven students, often describing the same incident from different viewpoints, this weaves together a variety of not-uncommon classroom characters and situations: the new kid, the trickster, the social bully, the super-bright and the disaffected; family clashes, divorce and death; an unwed mother whose long-ago actions haven't been forgotten in the small-town setting; class and experiential differences. Mr. Terupt engineers regular visits to the school’s special-needs classroom, changing some lives on both sides. A "Dollar Word" activity so appeals to Luke that he sprinkles them throughout his narrative all year. Danielle includes her regular prayers, and Anna never stops her hopeful matchmaking. No one is perfect in this feel-good story, but everyone benefits, including sentimentally inclined readers. (Fiction. 9-12)
Pub Date: Oct. 12, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-385-73882-8
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: Sept. 1, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2010
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An emotional, much-needed historical graphic novel.
Sandy and his family, Japanese Canadians, experience hatred and incarceration during World War II.
Sandy Saito loves baseball, and the Vancouver Asahi ballplayers are his heroes. But when they lose in the 1941 semifinals, Sandy’s dad calls it a bad omen. Sure enough, in December 1941, Japan bombs Pearl Harbor in the U.S. The Canadian government begins to ban Japanese people from certain areas, moving them to “dormitories” and setting a curfew. Sandy wants to spend time with his father, but as a doctor, his dad is busy, often sneaking out past curfew to work. One night Papa is taken to “where he [is] needed most,” and the family is forced into an internment camp. Life at the camp isn’t easy, and even with some of the Asahi players playing ball there, it just isn’t the same. Trying to understand and find joy again, Sandy struggles with his new reality and relationship with his father. Based on the true experiences of Japanese Canadians and the Vancouver Asahi team, this graphic novel is a glimpse of how their lives were affected by WWII. The end is a bit abrupt, but it’s still an inspiring and sweet look at how baseball helped them through hardship. The illustrations are all in a sepia tone, giving it an antique look and conveying the emotions and struggles. None of the illustrations of their experiences are overly graphic, making it a good introduction to this upsetting topic for middle-grade readers.
An emotional, much-needed historical graphic novel. (afterword, further resources) (Graphic historical fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Oct. 5, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5253-0334-0
Page Count: 112
Publisher: Kids Can
Review Posted Online: June 28, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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