A nifty starter mystery.
A young Lois Lane solves a mystery.
It’s the first day of 13-year-old Lois Lane’s summer vacation, and she has her sights set on creating a perfect viral video. Lois’ friend Kristen is a bit less focused on the task at hand, anxiously anticipating her departure for sleepaway camp. Kristen’s set to leave shortly after the annual neighborhood bike race—which may be the perfect backdrop for Lois’ #FriendshipChallenge video. But when the fireworks for the post–bike race barbecue go missing, Lois and Kristen take up the case, investigating the new girl on the block and the proprietor of the fancy new bike shop. Lois’ first mystery is composed with energetic panel work and dynamic compositions, colored with deep greens, blues, and purples. The central mystery is a bit routine, but the outcome shades the central friendship between Kristen and Lois in a pleasant-enough way to make the enterprise seem worthwhile. Hardcore DC fans may be a bit disappointed: There’s very little branded content to be had here—no hints at Batman, Superman, Green Lantern, etc. This is Lois Lane’s story, and while it may not work as an introduction to the hero-filled universe, it works wonderfully as a celebration of the character’s pluck and can-do attitude. Lois and Kristen both present white, but there’s significant diversity among the supporting cast.
A nifty starter mystery. (Graphic mystery. 8-12)Pub Date: Aug. 11, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4012-9637-7
Page Count: 160
Publisher: DC
Review Posted Online: April 11, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2020
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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