When a budding writer covets her neighbor’s diary, creative mayhem results. Iola has more ideas than she has time to write them down; Jennifer is something of a tabula rasa—which is why it’s just so unfair that Jennifer has a rainbow-colored diary with “a whole glossy blank page” for every day of the year. And when Iola spots it on the ground after school and takes it home, it’s only to be expected that she’ll write in it. The tale is told in Iola’s voice, every self-interested rationalization laid bare to the reader: “It was her own fault for getting back so late . . . I wrote in the diary because no one else was using it.” The juxtaposition between Jennifer’s mind-numbingly pedestrian diary entries and Iola’s imaginative pyrotechnics is nothing short of hilarious, if not a bit nice. The resolution is satisfyingly wicked, a celebration of the triumph of imagination, if not respect for private property. In literature, as in life, it’s something of a relief not to be nice every once in a while, and nobody walks this line better than Fine. (Fiction. 8-11)
Pub Date: April 12, 2007
ISBN: 0-374-33673-3
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2007
Simple, bella, un regalo permenente: simple and beautiful, a gift that will stay.
Renowned Latin American writer Alvarez has created another story about cultural identity, but this time the primary character is 11-year-old Miguel Guzmán.
When Tía Lola arrives to help the family, Miguel and his hermana, Juanita, have just moved from New York City to Vermont with their recently divorced mother. The last thing Miguel wants, as he's trying to fit into a predominantly white community, is a flamboyant aunt who doesn't speak a word of English. Tía Lola, however, knows a language that defies words; she quickly charms and befriends all the neighbors. She can also cook exotic food, dance (anywhere, anytime), plan fun parties, and tell enchanting stories. Eventually, Tía Lola and the children swap English and Spanish ejercicios, but the true lesson is "mutual understanding." Peppered with Spanish words and phrases, Alvarez makes the reader as much a part of the "language" lessons as the characters. This story seamlessly weaves two culturaswhile letting each remain intact, just as Miguel is learning to do with his own life. Like all good stories, this one incorporates a lesson just subtle enough that readers will forget they're being taught, but in the end will understand themselves, and others, a little better, regardless of la lengua nativa—the mother tongue.
Simple, bella, un regalo permenente: simple and beautiful, a gift that will stay. (Fiction. 9-11)Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-375-80215-0
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Donavan's friends collect buttons and marbles, but he collects words. ``NUTRITION,'' ``BALLYHOO,'' ``ABRACADABRA''—these and other words are safely stored on slips of paper in a jar. As it fills, Donavan sees a storage problem developing and, after soliciting advice from his teacher and family, solves it himself: Visiting his grandma at a senior citizens' apartment house, he settles a tenants' argument by pulling the word ``COMPROMISE'' from his jar and, feeling ``as if the sun had come out inside him,'' discovers the satisfaction of giving his words away. Appealingly detailed b&w illustrations depict Donavan and his grandma as African-Americans. This Baltimore librarian's first book is sure to whet readers' appetites for words, and may even start them on their own savory collections. (Fiction. 8-11)
Pub Date: June 30, 1994
ISBN: 0-06-020190-8
Page Count: 72
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1994
BOOK REVIEW
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