A superbly rendered love letter to identity and heritage.
We Need Diverse Books co-founder Oh follows up Flying Lessons & Other Stories (2017) with a collection of 12 interwoven, slice-of-life tales from acclaimed middle-grade authors.
In an unnamed American city stands a (potentially haunted) yellow apartment building called the Entrada, where aromas of food and loud sounds set the tone for a summer of communal living. Desirée, apparently of West Indian descent, helps Ro perform a lion dance for her Chinese school. Yaniel learns about his abuela’s history in Cuba while contemplating his feelings for Filipina American Pacy, a Star Trek aficionado with a crush on him. Many kids are first- or second-generation immigrants, and their cultures intermingle in authentic ways. Angel’s family is late on the rent, and his parents’ memories of their home city, Sephardic-founded Monterrey, Mexico, leads them to feel confident reaching out to their white Jewish landlords for help. Vietnamese American Hao discovers the ghost he’s been seeing around the building has a connection to Mr. Joe, the Italian American barber. Though each story was written by a different author—among them Tracey Baptiste, Adam Gidwitz, and Erin Entrada Kelly—they nevertheless coalesce into a rich depiction of a loving community. With candor and sensitivity, the authors take on both lighthearted issues such as burgeoning romance as well as more serious ones, including bigotry and the harsh realities of the American dream.
A superbly rendered love letter to identity and heritage. (foreword by Meg Medina) (Anthology. 8-12)Pub Date: Oct. 22, 2024
ISBN: 9780593648445
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2024
A warm bundle of holiday cheer.
In a funny, feel-good tale, 12-year-old twins separated at birth meet by chance and try to pull off a family switch during the December holidays.
The girls, who are cued white, agree that it would be a delicious prank, but each has a personal motive, too: Aviva Davis, who was adopted by a culturally Jewish mom and a Black dad who was raised Christian, wonders what it’s like to celebrate Christmas. Budding author Holly Martin, who was adopted by a white-presenting single mom, sees a golden opportunity to gather experiences for a school writing assignment about facing her fears. In a plot as sweet as a Hanukkah jelly doughnut and twisty as a Christmas cinnamon roll, the pair just manages to bail one another out of a string of sticky situations—both hilarious and otherwise. They both learn something of the customs and meaning of the two holidays while working through tears and laughter—not to mention conflicts sparked by their very different personalities. Everything culminates in a holiday performance at a local senior center that will have readers rising up to cheer them on. Though their history remains tantalizingly mysterious, for the protagonists, who narrate alternating chapters, it’s mission accomplished and more: Aviva emerges feeling more secure in her Jewish identity, while anxious Holly discovers unexpected depths of courage.
A warm bundle of holiday cheer. (song lyrics) (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Oct. 29, 2024
ISBN: 9781250360670
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2024
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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