A fast, fun origin story with appealing wish fulfillment.
On her 10th birthday, Aleca Zamm discovers she can stop time.
After some nasty bullying and a frame job by the class mean girl, a teacher’s pet, Aleca’s asked by the principal for her name. When she says it, time freezes; saying it again unfreezes time. What’s this newfound ability good for? Chaos! Aside from taking a peek at an upcoming math quiz (she has a bit of test anxiety), she has fun setting up a humiliating tableau for her tormenters and then restarting time. Her wish fulfillment continues as she experiments with her ability before her orange-haired great-aunt arrives—because of Aleca. Aleca, like Aunt Zephyr, is a Wonder: one who gains a power upon turning 10. It skips a generation in the Zamm family and has caused lots of misery to some (a mind reader was forced to become a hermit, and her grandfather could talk to animals, but they would never leave him alone). Zephyr can help. Wonders are immune to one another’s abilities, and Aunt Zephyr warns that someone could be looking for them….Aleca’s ability is likely to provoke both envy and thought on the part of readers, though some flourishes, such as her little dances while time’s stopped, feel arbitrary. Aleca’s white, and her best friend is a bilingual Spanish speaker, but most characters lack physical descriptions and racial or ethnic markers.
A fast, fun origin story with appealing wish fulfillment. (Fantasy. 7-10)Pub Date: June 6, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4814-7060-5
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: March 14, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2017
It’s hard to argue with success, but guides that actually do the math will be more useful to budding capitalists.
How to raise money for a coveted poster: put your friends to work!
John, founder of the FUBU fashion line and a Shark Tank venture capitalist, offers a self-referential blueprint for financial success. Having only half of the $10 he needs for a Minka J poster, Daymond forks over $1 to buy a plain T-shirt, paints a picture of the pop star on it, sells it for $5, and uses all of his cash to buy nine more shirts. Then he recruits three friends to decorate them with his design and help sell them for an unspecified amount (from a conveniently free and empty street-fair booth) until they’re gone. The enterprising entrepreneur reimburses himself for the shirts and splits the remaining proceeds, which leaves him with enough for that poster as well as a “brand-new business book,” while his friends express other fiscal strategies: saving their share, spending it all on new art supplies, or donating part and buying a (math) book with the rest. (In a closing summation, the author also suggests investing in stocks, bonds, or cryptocurrency.) Though Miles cranks up the visual energy in her sparsely detailed illustrations by incorporating bright colors and lots of greenbacks, the actual advice feels a bit vague. Daymond is Black; most of the cast are people of color. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
It’s hard to argue with success, but guides that actually do the math will be more useful to budding capitalists. (Picture book. 7-9)Pub Date: March 21, 2023
ISBN: 978-0-593-56727-2
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2023
A fitting farewell, still funny, acute, and positive in its view of human nature even in its 37th episode.
A long-running series reaches its closing chapters.
Having, as Kline notes in her warm valedictory acknowledgements, taken 30 years to get through second and third grade, Harry Spooger is overdue to move on—but not just into fourth grade, it turns out, as his family is moving to another town as soon as the school year ends. The news leaves his best friend, narrator “Dougo,” devastated…particularly as Harry doesn’t seem all that fussed about it. With series fans in mind, the author takes Harry through a sort of last-day-of-school farewell tour. From his desk he pulls a burned hot dog and other items that featured in past episodes, says goodbye to Song Lee and other classmates, and even (for the first time ever) leads Doug and readers into his house and memento-strewn room for further reminiscing. Of course, Harry isn’t as blasé about the move as he pretends, and eyes aren’t exactly dry when he departs. But hardly is he out of sight before Doug is meeting Mohammad, a new neighbor from Syria who (along with further diversifying a cast that began as mostly white but has become increasingly multiethnic over the years) will also be starting fourth grade at summer’s end, and planning a written account of his “horrible” buddy’s exploits. Finished illustrations not seen.
A fitting farewell, still funny, acute, and positive in its view of human nature even in its 37th episode. (Fiction. 7-9)Pub Date: Nov. 27, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-451-47963-1
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Sept. 16, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2018
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