A clever reveal highlights this appealing, Latino cast.
Three 12-year-old friends dedicate a summer to practicing the art of magic, but the real trick lies in dealing not simply with cards, but with their differences.
While stage magic frames the narrative, it’s the kids’ friendships and complex stories that propel the swiftly paced novel. Z, short for Ezio, is the youngest sibling in a big family with financial restraints, and whether at home or with friends, he consistently feels overlooked and underestimated. Dominic’s bright (or, as his friends say, a “know-it-all”) and a reader; he opts to focus on mentalism rather than card tricks, in part to understand his parents’ divorce and hostility. Only-child Loop (an accidental nickname for Guadalupe) has recently learned that his “dad” is not his biological father and feels betrayed by his family, especially his dad. It’s during their practice in the back room in the Conjuring Cat magic shop that they meet Mr. Garza, the owner, accountant, and skilled magician who coaches the trio to compete in the Texas Association of Magicians’ teen stage contest. López opens the short chapters with apt magicians’ terms (flash, heckler, cut, vanish) followed by their definitions, often foreshadowing action and brimming with double-entendres. As related in third-person chapters that rotate through the friends’ perspectives and feature believable dialogue, the friends’ obstacles are realistic and the finale is satisfying.
A clever reveal highlights this appealing, Latino cast. (author’s note, resources) (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: April 19, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-316-34087-8
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Jan. 8, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2016
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
Telgemeier’s bold colors, superior visual storytelling, and unusual subject matter will keep readers emotionally engaged and...
Catrina narrates the story of her mixed-race (Latino/white) family’s move from Southern California to Bahía de la Luna on the Northern California coast.
Dad has a new job, but it’s little sister Maya’s lungs that motivate the move: she has had cystic fibrosis since birth—a degenerative breathing condition. Despite her health, Maya loves adventure, even if her lungs suffer for it and even when Cat must follow to keep her safe. When Carlos, a tall, brown, and handsome teen Ghost Tour guide introduces the sisters to the Bahía ghosts—most of whom were Spanish-speaking Mexicans when alive—they fascinate Maya and she them, but the terrified Cat wants only to get herself and Maya back to safety. When the ghost adventure leads to Maya’s hospitalization, Cat blames both herself and Carlos, which makes seeing him at school difficult. As Cat awakens to the meaning of Halloween and Day of the Dead in this strange new home, she comes to understand the importance of the ghosts both to herself and to Maya. Telgemeier neatly balances enough issues that a lesser artist would split them into separate stories and delivers as much delight textually as visually. The backmatter includes snippets from Telgemeier’s sketchbook and a photo of her in Día makeup.
Telgemeier’s bold colors, superior visual storytelling, and unusual subject matter will keep readers emotionally engaged and unable to put down this compelling tale. (Graphic fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 13, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-545-54061-2
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: July 1, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2016
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