Smart, lively, and genuine, Clara Humble will feel familiar to anyone who has ever ignored that worried feeling in the pit...
Clara Humble (who is not so humble) gets to show off her stuff on television when her favorite show, Smarty Pants, comes to town!
The only trouble is that she’s competing with lots of her friends, including her best friend, Bradley. And to make matters worse, the age-old battle between the girls and the boys erupts into a full-blown war, both on the playground and on the set. When she and Bradley find themselves in opposition on the gender issue, Clara worries that her best friend has gone to the dark side. Will the two of them be able to keep their friendship despite the stress of competition? And how far will Clara go to prove that she’s the best at answering trivia questions while wallowing around in vats of pudding? Humphrey’s second Clara Humble book delivers another exciting adventure featuring a group of characters who feel pleasingly authentic and who find themselves in tricky situations that require sharper-than-usual creative thinking skills. (Naming conventions point to some diversity among Clara’s classmates, but Clara and Bradley appear to be white.) Paired with Clara’s comic-strip drawings featuring @Cat, superheroine extraordinaire, the lively narrative and cunning plot points provide a nifty adventure and an exploration of the consequences of going with the crowd.
Smart, lively, and genuine, Clara Humble will feel familiar to anyone who has ever ignored that worried feeling in the pit of their stomach . (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 15, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-77147-215-9
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Owlkids Books
Review Posted Online: June 26, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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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