A sweet start ripe for more installments
Faith and friendship are at the heart of Bouwman’s (A Crack in the Sea, 2017, etc.) new chapter-book series.
Eight-year old Eleanor has just moved, against her protestations, into a new duplex with her family. Now she’s suddenly forced to share a room with her older sister, and to top it off, her beloved goldfish, Scrumpy IV, has just bought the farm. Eleanor loves Darth Vader and building. The upstairs of the duplex is home to 7-year-old home-schooler Owen, who loves secret codes and fencing. He has not had much experience making friends, much less ones with so forceful a personality as Eleanor. When Eleanor announces her plan to run away, back to her beloved blue house, in order to bury Scrumpy alongside his predecessors and to take up residence herself in the backyard treehouse, Owen is along for a wild ride. Although the story is brief, Bouwman manages to bring depth to each of the protagonists as the narrative shifts between Owen’s and Eleanor’s perspectives, both wrestling with their choices and values. The particular moral and theological bent of the narrative may limit the audience somewhat—Eleanor’s concerns about losing her home are relieved when she’s reminded that her “real home is always with God”—but the overarching themes of friendship, familial love, and resiliency in the face of change are fairly universal. Brown-skinned Eleanor has a mixed heritage, with a Costa Rican–born father and American-born mother, while Owen presents white.
A sweet start ripe for more installments . (Fiction. 5-9)Pub Date: April 3, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5064-3972-3
Page Count: 120
Publisher: Sparkhouse
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2018
Another quirky take on the series theme that it’s cool to be kind.
The cool beans again step up to do a timorous fellow legume a fava…this time at the pool.
Will a rash decision to tackle the multistory super-slide lead to another embarrassing watery fail for our shy protagonist? Nope, for up the stairs right behind comes a trio of cool beans, each a different type and color, all clad in nothing but dark shades. They make an offer: “It’s not as scary if you go with friends!” As the knobby nerd explains once the thrilling ride down is done, “They all realized that I just needed some encouragement and support.” Just to make sure that both cool and uncool readers get the message, the narrator lets us know that “there are plenty of kind folks who have my back. They’re always there when I need them.” The beany bonhomie doesn’t end at the bottom of the slide, with all gliding down to the shallow end of the pool (“3 INCHES. NO DIVING”) for a splashy finale. This latest early reader starring characters from John and Oswald’s immensely popular Food Group series will be a hit with fans. Fun accessories, such as a bean who rocks pink cat-eye frames, add some pizzazz to the chromatically and somatotypically varied cast.
Another quirky take on the series theme that it’s cool to be kind. (Easy reader. 5-7)Pub Date: March 26, 2024
ISBN: 9780063329560
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 17, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
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