An amusing story that asks readers to engage with moral gray areas.
The summer after eighth grade, Perry Homer is focused on entering a prep school where he can turn over a new leaf.
Perry learned about “the rush” from his father—it’s that feeling that you’re above the rules. From Uncle Manny he learned to maximize loopholes and, from his mom, to watch for tells. But Perry longs to leave his con artist family behind, and with the help of a supportive teacher, he sets his sights on winning a scholarship to New York’s Ithaca School for Scholars, where he can be “Good Perry” from now on. Unfortunately, the Homer family must pull a few more swindles to get back home to Pittsburgh from their summer vacation, and Perry, desperate to get back in time for the interview, is quickly drawn in. A pawnshop deception and a hotel room scam keep Perry engaged in the family chaos. While the Homers are lying low at a wildcat sanctuary, Perry observes his family members finding their own measures of honest contentment. Yet he feels empty, so he sets about apologizing to the people he’s wronged. As summer ends, Perry takes off for a last-ditch chance at the scholarship interview. The Homers are antihero protagonists, and even well-intentioned Perry’s actions can seem questionable. Serious themes sometimes feel awkwardly dropped in amid the over-the-top antics, although they do support Perry’s growth. Most main characters are cued white.
An amusing story that asks readers to engage with moral gray areas. (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: June 18, 2024
ISBN: 9781665918640
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: March 23, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2024
Hugely entertaining, timely, and triumphant.
Robot Roz undertakes an unusual ocean journey to save her adopted island home in this third series entry.
When a poison tide flowing across the ocean threatens their island, Roz works with the resident creatures to ensure that they will have clean water, but the destruction of vegetation and crowding of habitats jeopardize everyone’s survival. Brown’s tale of environmental depredation and turmoil is by turns poignant, graceful, endearing, and inspiring, with his (mostly) gentle robot protagonist at its heart. Though Roz is different from the creatures she lives with or encounters—including her son, Brightbill the goose, and his new mate, Glimmerwing—she makes connections through her versatile communication abilities and her desire to understand and help others. When Roz accidentally discovers that the replacement body given to her by Dr. Molovo is waterproof, she sets out to seek help and discovers the human-engineered source of the toxic tide. Brown’s rich descriptions of undersea landscapes, entertaining conversations between Roz and wild creatures, and concise yet powerful explanations of the effect of the poison tide on the ecology of the island are superb. Simple, spare illustrations offer just enough glimpses of Roz and her surroundings to spark the imagination. The climactic confrontation pits oceangoing mammals, seabirds, fish, and even zooplankton against hardware and technology in a nicely choreographed battle. But it is Roz’s heroism and peacemaking that save the day.
Hugely entertaining, timely, and triumphant. (author’s note) (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2023
ISBN: 9780316669412
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2023
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
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