A heartwarming tale that combines Black boy joy with community connection.
An African American tween with a gift for rhyme turns a school project into something bigger.
Simon Barnes is entering fifth grade at Booker T. Washington Elementary School. He has supportive family and friends but still worries about being the shortest in his class and all the teasing that brings. One thing he holds onto is his ability to create raps, a talent that earned him the nickname Rhymin’ Simon and sparked his dream of becoming a famous rapper. His best friend, Maria Rivera, shares information about their new teacher that makes him a bit anxious, but Mr. James turns out to be a high-energy presence with infectious enthusiasm. He even raps his welcome! However, he then announces their first assignment: an oral report on a topic of their choosing. Simon’s reluctance to speak in public overshadows everything and consumes his thoughts. When he decides to make the subject of his presentation Sunny, an older homeless man who is a fixture in the neighborhood, the compassion his parents cultivated in him emerges. Reed draws on his experience as a teacher who went viral with his classroom raps to tell an upbeat story about a tween grounded in his community of Black and Latinx families. Simon is a likable protagonist, and his relationships ring true. The lively narrative is enhanced by Simon’s rhymes; cheerful illustrations contribute to the buoyant tone.
A heartwarming tale that combines Black boy joy with community connection. (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: March 2, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-316-53897-8
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Dec. 23, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
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
An insubstantial story that offers a prosocial message.
Two boys equally blessed with both talent and ego vie for supremacy in their school’s annual “creative storytelling competition.”
J is “by far the best artist in the entire fifth grade”; K has “become known as the best writer in the entire fifth grade.” Naturally, each one is determined to crush it in The Contest, and each decides an illustrated story is the way to go. The competitive boys try to undermine one another by passing along fake tips for success, each hoping to destroy his opponent’s story. K advises J to “write what you DON’T know” and to use sixth-person narration. “J’s Secrets to Drawing Really Good” are just as catastrophic and include drawing with your nondominant hand and inserting mistakes to keep readers engaged. Creative hijinks ensue. Craft and Alexander have become known on social media for the jocular trash talk they heap on each other; J and K are their fictional child avatars. As an internet bit doled out in small doses, their frenemy-ship is amusing; as a sustained story about storytelling, it’s thin on both character and plot development. Authorial interjections exhort readers to look up 75-cent vocabulary, often used in barbs directed at each other; the latter feel like in-jokes more than playful attempts to engage young readers. Kids may enjoy spotting references to popular children’s authors among the characters’ names, and budding authors and illustrators will benefit from the advice. J and K are both Black; their classmates and teachers are racially diverse.
An insubstantial story that offers a prosocial message. (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: May 6, 2025
ISBN: 9780316582681
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
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