The final, delicious entry in a much-loved series.
Iconic second graders Ivy and Bean are back for their final outing.
Two little girls couldn’t be much more different. Bean’s mind races in remarkable (but ever so age-appropriate) circles, making it hard to stay on task, and Ivy is as quiet and contained as Bean is boisterous. But the pair are perfect together, always finding clever ways to sort out their differences and making fun out of just about any small idea. This time it’s treasure hunting. After learning at a career day about what magical and valuable items could be found if they just could afford a metal detector, the girls decide to use their “special sense” of what’s lost, inspiring lots of hole-digging but very little treasure-finding. It’s only after they secretly hide treasured items for each other that they meet with remarkable and very satisfying success. Many of the children who read the first Ivy + Bean book as second graders in 2006 are now, unbelievably, college graduates. But the series has remained fresh and relevant, offering a perfect first dip into chapter books for a whole new generation of readers. Like the others in the series, this effort combines Barrows’ nicely developed characters and her hilarious, easy-to-read take on juvenile adventures with Blackall’s spot-on Chinese ink illustrations on every spread, with purely delightful results. Ivy and Bean both present White; their classmates are diverse.
The final, delicious entry in a much-loved series. (Fiction. 6-9)Pub Date: April 6, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-7972-0510-6
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021
BOOK TO SCREEN
It’s hard to argue with success, but guides that actually do the math will be more useful to budding capitalists.
How to raise money for a coveted poster: put your friends to work!
John, founder of the FUBU fashion line and a Shark Tank venture capitalist, offers a self-referential blueprint for financial success. Having only half of the $10 he needs for a Minka J poster, Daymond forks over $1 to buy a plain T-shirt, paints a picture of the pop star on it, sells it for $5, and uses all of his cash to buy nine more shirts. Then he recruits three friends to decorate them with his design and help sell them for an unspecified amount (from a conveniently free and empty street-fair booth) until they’re gone. The enterprising entrepreneur reimburses himself for the shirts and splits the remaining proceeds, which leaves him with enough for that poster as well as a “brand-new business book,” while his friends express other fiscal strategies: saving their share, spending it all on new art supplies, or donating part and buying a (math) book with the rest. (In a closing summation, the author also suggests investing in stocks, bonds, or cryptocurrency.) Though Miles cranks up the visual energy in her sparsely detailed illustrations by incorporating bright colors and lots of greenbacks, the actual advice feels a bit vague. Daymond is Black; most of the cast are people of color. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
It’s hard to argue with success, but guides that actually do the math will be more useful to budding capitalists. (Picture book. 7-9)Pub Date: March 21, 2023
ISBN: 978-0-593-56727-2
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2023
A fitting farewell, still funny, acute, and positive in its view of human nature even in its 37th episode.
A long-running series reaches its closing chapters.
Having, as Kline notes in her warm valedictory acknowledgements, taken 30 years to get through second and third grade, Harry Spooger is overdue to move on—but not just into fourth grade, it turns out, as his family is moving to another town as soon as the school year ends. The news leaves his best friend, narrator “Dougo,” devastated…particularly as Harry doesn’t seem all that fussed about it. With series fans in mind, the author takes Harry through a sort of last-day-of-school farewell tour. From his desk he pulls a burned hot dog and other items that featured in past episodes, says goodbye to Song Lee and other classmates, and even (for the first time ever) leads Doug and readers into his house and memento-strewn room for further reminiscing. Of course, Harry isn’t as blasé about the move as he pretends, and eyes aren’t exactly dry when he departs. But hardly is he out of sight before Doug is meeting Mohammad, a new neighbor from Syria who (along with further diversifying a cast that began as mostly white but has become increasingly multiethnic over the years) will also be starting fourth grade at summer’s end, and planning a written account of his “horrible” buddy’s exploits. Finished illustrations not seen.
A fitting farewell, still funny, acute, and positive in its view of human nature even in its 37th episode. (Fiction. 7-9)Pub Date: Nov. 27, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-451-47963-1
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Sept. 16, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2018
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