Pinkwater is in fine satirical form in this hilarious sendup of the diet industry, in which a fat threesome gets revenge after being shipped off to a weight-loss camp. A lecture given on Anti-Fat Day, a local holiday when thin citizens demonstrate their affection for their fat neighbors by hurling doughnuts and screaming insults at them, convinces the parents of Ralph and Sylvia that they must send their overweight children to Camp Noo Yoo so that they can become “all skinny and perfect.” At camp, the fat and once happy siblings dine on carrots, do compulsory aerobics, and attend “Creative Abuse and Motivation classes,” where they are told in vivid, side-splitting detail—“You will lose your job collecting dead skunks for the Fish and Wildlife Service” and “wind up in prison for stealing pumpkin pies”—how horrible their lives will be if they don’t slim down. Fellow camper Mavis, “a little round fatball of fury,” talks them into breaking out and wreaking vengeance on the gaunt and the proud. In the funniest and most pointed part here, the kids decide to give the self-righteous scrawny a taste of their own medicine, skewering them with the kind of insults (“Hey, pipe-cleaner man!”) and unsolicited advice (“You shouldn’t run at your weight . . . You should rest . . . and eat nourishing food”) that fat people routinely endure. In a fun and surprising resolution, the kids learn how to channel their feelings more constructively; finally realizing that creativity is sweeter than revenge. Delicious and nutritious. (Fiction. 8-13)
Pub Date: May 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-439-15527-4
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2001
Though it lacks nuance, still a must-read.
Tyler is the son of generations of Vermont dairy farmers.
Mari is the Mexican-born daughter of undocumented migrant laborers whose mother has vanished in a perilous border crossing. When Tyler’s father is disabled in an accident, the only way the family can afford to keep the farm is by hiring Mari’s family. As Tyler and Mari’s friendship grows, the normal tensions of middle-school boy-girl friendships are complicated by philosophical and political truths. Tyler wonders how he can be a patriot while his family breaks the law. Mari worries about her vanished mother and lives in fear that she will be separated from her American-born sisters if la migra comes. Unashamedly didactic, Alvarez’s novel effectively complicates simple equivalencies between what’s illegal and what’s wrong. Mari’s experience is harrowing, with implied atrocities and immigration raids, but equally full of good people doing the best they can. The two children find hope despite the unhappily realistic conclusions to their troubles, in a story which sees the best in humanity alongside grim realities.
Though it lacks nuance, still a must-read. (Fiction. 9-11)Pub Date: Jan. 13, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-375-85838-3
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2008
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An authentic and moving time capsule of middle school angst, trauma, and joy.
Through the author’s own childhood diary entries, a seventh grader details her inner life before and after 9/11.
Alyssa’s diary entries start in September 2000, in the first week of her seventh grade year. She’s 11 and dealing with typical preteen concerns—popularity and anxiety about grades—along with other things more particular to her own life. She’s shuffling between Queens and Manhattan to share time between her divorced parents and struggling with thick facial hair and classmates who make her feel like she’s “not a whole person” due to her mixed White and Puerto Rican heritage. Alyssa is endlessly earnest and awkward as she works up the courage to talk to her crush, Alejandro; gushes about her dreams of becoming a shoe designer; and tries to solve her burgeoning unibrow problem. The diaries also have a darker side, as a sense of impending doom builds as the entries approach 9/11, especially because Alyssa’s father works in finance in the World Trade Center. As a number of the diary entries are taken directly from the author’s originals, they effortlessly capture the loud, confusing feelings middle school brings out. The artwork, in its muted but effective periwinkle tones, lends a satisfying layer to the diary’s accessible and delightful format.
An authentic and moving time capsule of middle school angst, trauma, and joy. (author's note) (Graphic memoir. 8-13)Pub Date: Aug. 17, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-250-77427-9
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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