A relatable, high-energy journey through grief and magic.
Lola Reyes has plenty to worry about.
The Guatemalan American fifth grader is processing her dad’s sudden death, her mom’s overly controlled grief, and changing friendships. When she and her cousin find a box of worry dolls at Abuela Gloria’s house in Guatemala labeled “Do Not Open” in her dad’s handwriting, she sneaks them into her suitcase, hoping to keep a piece of Pop with her. Ignoring his warning note about an ancient Mayan curse, Lola soon faces more than she bargained for when the dolls come to life. The six dolls soak up worries from nearby humans, grow larger, and escape, causing mischief. Lola and annoying neighbor Chance Townsend, who’s cued white, team up to find the dolls within six days—before they release the magnified worries, with grim consequences. Lola doesn’t feel as though she can burden her grieving mother by asking for help with this problem, and she’s hurt that her best friend has become closer to one of their classmates over the summer. Lola is overwhelmed and must find a way to reverse the curse before it’s too late. Rodriguez seamlessly marries supernatural adventures with realistic, universal themes of grief and human connection. This dynamic, creative story highlights themes of loss, vulnerability, and the power of asking for help. The multifaceted characters remind readers that people often struggle with hidden complexities—a poignant message for middle graders.
A relatable, high-energy journey through grief and magic. (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 17, 2024
ISBN: 9780063276819
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
However the compelling fitness of theme and event and the apt but unexpected imagery (the opening sentences compare the...
At a time when death has become an acceptable, even voguish subject in children's fiction, Natalie Babbitt comes through with a stylistic gem about living forever.
Protected Winnie, the ten-year-old heroine, is not immortal, but when she comes upon young Jesse Tuck drinking from a secret spring in her parents' woods, she finds herself involved with a family who, having innocently drunk the same water some 87 years earlier, haven't aged a moment since. Though the mood is delicate, there is no lack of action, with the Tucks (previously suspected of witchcraft) now pursued for kidnapping Winnie; Mae Tuck, the middle aged mother, striking and killing a stranger who is onto their secret and would sell the water; and Winnie taking Mae's place in prison so that the Tucks can get away before she is hanged from the neck until....? Though Babbitt makes the family a sad one, most of their reasons for discontent are circumstantial and there isn't a great deal of wisdom to be gleaned from their fate or Winnie's decision not to share it.
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1975
ISBN: 0312369816
Page Count: 164
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: April 13, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1975
Funny and endearing, though incomplete characterizations provoke questions.
An isolated class of misfits and a teacher on the edge of retirement are paired together for a year of (supposed) failure.
Zachary Kermit, a 55-year-old teacher, has been haunted for the last 27 years by a student cheating scandal that has earned him the derision of his colleagues and killed his teaching spirit. So when he is assigned to teach the Self-Contained Special Eighth-Grade Class—a dumping ground for “the Unteachables,” students with “behavior issues, learning problems, juvenile delinquents”—he is unfazed, as he is only a year away from early retirement. His relationship with his seven students—diverse in temperament, circumstance, and ability—will be one of “uncomfortable roommates” until June. But when Mr. Kermit unexpectedly stands up for a student, the kids of SCS-8 notice his sense of “justice and fairness.” Mr. Kermit finds he may even care a little about them, and they start to care back in their own way, turning a corner and bringing along a few ghosts from Mr. Kermit’s past. Writing in the alternating voices of Mr. Kermit, most of his students, and two administrators, Korman spins a narrative of redemption and belief in exceeding self-expectations. Naming conventions indicate characters of different ethnic backgrounds, but the book subscribes to a white default. The two students who do not narrate may be students of color, and their characterizations subtly—though arguably inadequately—demonstrate the danger of preconceptions.
Funny and endearing, though incomplete characterizations provoke questions. (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Jan. 8, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-06-256388-0
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Sept. 16, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2018
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