Genuinely funny, convincing, and in tune with its audience.
Buddy, Bea, and their second grade classmates find a perfect class name.
By Friday of the first week of school, Buddy is feeling confident, but he’s still getting used to his exuberant classmate Bea and his new teacher, Ms. Maple. Ms. Maple has done something intriguingly unexpected, though, removing the classroom books from their baskets and scattering them around the room. Ms. Maple asks the class to sort them—a challenging activity for enthusiastic, recently fledged readers. The second graders step up with interest and determination, each taking charge of a category and a labeled basket. Bea has her own strong ideas. She insists that books that don’t rhyme can’t go in the poetry basket and that it would be fine to have a basket just for the books she personally wants to read. Questions arise: Is a graphic novel with an African American character supposed to go in Amber’s African American basket or in Omar’s graphic novel basket? Lunchtime brings some interesting intel: The other second grade class is choosing a class name! This information galvanizes Ms. Maple’s class, resulting in a lively exercise in idea sharing, cooperation, and compromise. Carr persuasively conveys the sparkle, earnest enthusiasm, and occasional boisterous silliness of second graders, and these funny school moments feel genuine. Buddy is Asian, Bea is light-skinned, and Ms. Maple is of Filipino descent; other children and teachers are depicted as racially diverse in the energetic cartoon art.
Genuinely funny, convincing, and in tune with its audience. (Chapter book. 6-9)Pub Date: July 11, 2023
ISBN: 9781682635353
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Peachtree
Review Posted Online: May 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2023
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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