A winsome series lead effortlessly carries this breezy tale.
Pollack’s middle-grade novel, one in a series, continues the adventures of a charming New Jersey fourth grader.
Jillian “Jelly Bean” Kramer has already had a lot on her plate this school year, but with Thanksgiving just around the corner, things aren’t looking so bad—she’s scored in the best-friend department, palling around with the ever confident Britney. On the other hand, there’s tension at home: Michael, the oldest of her three older brothers, has become increasingly distant from his family and, against their parents’ wishes, he doesn’t want to go to college. Even more pressing (for Jelly Bean) is the fact that her mom won’t let her stay at Britney’s house—her mom’s chief reason being that Britney’s divorced convict father might show up. Jelly Bean tries her hardest to convince her mom, or whoever will listen, that she’ll be perfectly fine at her best friend’s place. Comfortingly, some things don’t ever seem to change: Her dog, Roger-Over, is her most reliable source of comfort, her brother Sam is perpetually “awesome,” and Joel, the youngest brother, is always ready to instigate a trivial argument. Change, however, is inevitable: Michael makes an unexpected decision about his future, and Jelly Bean’s grandparents, after a medical emergency, may have to move somewhere far away from New Jersey. “Well, life goes on,” her dad says. That’s certainly true, and Jelly Bean has some life decisions of her own to make, like whether or not she wants to remain committed to gymnastics. She knows she’ll stop by Britney’s home just as soon as her mother gives her permission—or maybe before.
As in the first installment of Pollack’s series (The Adventures of Jelly Bean, 2022), Jelly Bean is a delight. She’s naturally empathetic: She warms up to the new girl in school because she knows how mean some other girls can be, and she almost instantly regrets yelling at her mother in frustration. She’s a believable young girl who often rolls with the punches, even when it appears her “world is coming apart.” Still, she can’t help but react to Joel’s never-ending ridicule; if they’re in the same room together, a fight is practically guaranteed. Pesky siblings aren’t all readers will relate to—topical subplots follow a fellow student’s eating disorder, a family tragedy, and Britney living with her family in “the worst part of town” (the real reason, Jelly Bean speculates, that she’s not allowed to visit her friend). The book has plenty of feel-good moments as well—Roger-Over enlivens every scene he’s in, sometimes merely with the sounds of a dog getting more comfortable while resting. Britney is an invaluable confidence-booster and consistently proves herself to be a great friend. Pollack’s bright, unadorned prose lends itself to this fourth grader’s perspective; everyday life for Jelly Bean is overflowing with smaller adventures that she braves at school, family outings, or sometimes without even leaving her house. Considering that the first two series installments barely cover a year of Jelly Bean’s life, further sequels featuring this likable hero are a strong and welcome possibility.
A winsome series lead effortlessly carries this breezy tale.Pub Date: Sept. 30, 2022
ISBN: 9781649793751
Page Count: 180
Publisher: Austin Macauley
Review Posted Online: June 27, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
A fast and funny alternative to the Wimpy Kid.
Black sixth-grader Jake Liston can only play one song on the piano. He can’t read music very well, and he can’t improvise. So how did Jake get accepted to the Music and Art Academy? He faked it.
Alongside an eclectic group of academy classmates, and with advice from his best friend, Jake tries to fit in at a school where things like garbage sculpting and writing art reviews of bird poop splatter are the norm. All is well until Jake discovers that the end-of-the-semester talent show is only two weeks away, and Jake is short one very important thing…talent. Or is he? It’s up to Jake to either find the talent that lies within or embarrass himself in front of the entire school. Light and humorous, with Knight’s illustrations adding to the fun, Jake’s story will likely appeal to many middle-grade readers, especially those who might otherwise be reluctant to pick up a book. While the artsy antics may be over-the-top at times, this is a story about something that most preteens can relate to: the struggle to find your authentic self. And in a world filled with books about wanting to fit in with the athletically gifted supercliques, this novel unabashedly celebrates the artsy crowd in all of its quirky, creative glory.
A fast and funny alternative to the Wimpy Kid. (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: March 28, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-553-52351-5
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Dec. 5, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2016
An inspirational exploration of caring among parent, teacher and child—one of Grimes’ best. (Poetry. 8-12)
In this delightfully spare narrative in verse, Coretta Scott King Award–winning Grimes examines a marriage’s end from the perspective of a child.
Set mostly in the wake of her father’s departure, only-child Gabby reveals with moving clarity in these short first-person poems the hardship she faces relocating with her mother and negotiating the further loss of a good friend while trying to adjust to a new school. Gabby has always been something of a dreamer, but when she begins study in her new class, she finds her thoughts straying even more. She admits: “Some words / sit still on the page / holding a story steady. / … / But other words have wings / that wake my daydreams. / They … / tickle my imagination, / and carry my thoughts away.” To illustrate Gabby’s inner wanderings, Grimes’ narrative breaks from the present into episodic bursts of vivid poetic reminiscence. Luckily, Gabby’s new teacher recognizes this inability to focus to be a coping mechanism and devises a daily activity designed to harness daydreaming’s creativity with a remarkably positive result for both Gabby and the entire class. Throughout this finely wrought narrative, Grimes’ free verse is tight, with perfect breaks of line and effortless shifts from reality to dream states and back.
An inspirational exploration of caring among parent, teacher and child—one of Grimes’ best. (Poetry. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-59078-985-8
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Wordsong/Boyds Mills
Review Posted Online: July 16, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2013
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