A warm depiction of family and of standing up for what you believe in
After her father loses his job, 11-year-old Carolina moves with her parents and younger brother, Daniel, from their home in Puerto Rico to upstate New York.
She misses that open, breezy home, the flamboyán tree in the backyard, and the weekly art lessons with Señora Rivón. Carolina can’t seem to relate to her 13-year-old cousin, Gabriela, who is half–Puerto Rican and half-white. Carolina is afraid of losing her Puerto Rican customs, such as leaving Dani’s lost tooth for the Ratoncito Pérez to take instead of the Tooth Fairy. At Tía Cuca and Uncle Porter’s suggestion, Carolina and Dani join Gabriela at a farm day camp called Silver Meadows. She meets Gabriela’s friends and a girl named Jennifer who is also an artist. A friendship between Jennifer and Carolina blooms, and after Carolina finds a small abandoned cottage, Jennifer and Carolina turn the cabin into their artists’ colony, sneaking off to beautify it and make art there whenever they see the opportunity. The possible closure of the summer camp looms large over the plot; as Carolina strives to find a space for herself in Larksville, she also tries to figure a way to save the beloved summer camp. The poetry of Robert Frost, Luis de Léon, and Antonio Machado provides thematic counterpoint within Otheguy’s approachable, empathetic, third-person narrative.
A warm depiction of family and of standing up for what you believe in . (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: April 30, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5247-7323-6
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Jan. 14, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
A real gem.
A 10-year old girl learns to adjust to a strange town, makes some fascinating friends, and fills the empty space in her heart thanks to a big old stray dog in this lyrical, moving, and enchanting book by a fresh new voice.
India Opal’s mama left when she was only three, and her father, “the preacher,” is absorbed in his own loss and in the work of his new ministry at the Open-Arms Baptist Church of Naomi [Florida]. Enter Winn-Dixie, a dog who “looked like a big piece of old brown carpet that had been left out in the rain.” But, this dog had a grin “so big that it made him sneeze.” And, as Opal says, “It’s hard not to immediately fall in love with a dog who has a good sense of humor.” Because of Winn-Dixie, Opal meets Miss Franny Block, an elderly lady whose papa built her a library of her own when she was just a little girl and she’s been the librarian ever since. Then, there’s nearly blind Gloria Dump, who hangs the empty bottle wreckage of her past from the mistake tree in her back yard. And, Otis, oh yes, Otis, whose music charms the gerbils, rabbits, snakes and lizards he’s let out of their cages in the pet store. Brush strokes of magical realism elevate this beyond a simple story of friendship to a well-crafted tale of community and fellowship, of sweetness, sorrow and hope. And, it’s funny, too.
A real gem. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: March 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-7636-0776-2
Page Count: 182
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2000
SEEN & HEARD
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