World War II, segregation and prejudice in a book that feels decades old in its approach.
The summer before fifth grade brings changes for a Bronx girl.
Susan and her parents are leaving the Bronx for Clayton, Mo. It’s the middle of World War II, and Susan’s father, not in the armed forces, has changed jobs. She worries about being a Yankees fan in St. Louis Cardinals territory and leaving close friends and family behind, but she hasn’t counted on the troubling difference in accents and relations with adults from North to South. She makes two new friends very quickly; one has an annoying little sister, and one is a “Negro kid.” Playing with the two of them leads to bigger thoughts. Perhaps they should integrate the pool. No, Jim Crow laws are too strong, she is told. Well then, thinks Susan, they “could ride on the bus together, and we would not be breaking any law.” Although public transportation here is integrated, they raise plenty of eyebrows and turn many heads. Part of this civil disobedience involves eating in a Chinese restaurant that has been vandalized with anti-Japanese slogans. Cutler writes her story with her focus squarely on issues. There is insufficient motivation for Susan to have this level of social conscience, and actions take precedence over character development. In addition, her family is nominally Jewish, so there are some requisite but gratuitous-feeling anti-Semitic remarks.
World War II, segregation and prejudice in a book that feels decades old in its approach. (Historical fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: May 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-8234-3047-5
Page Count: 112
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: March 11, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2014
Eminently readable and appealing; will tug at dog-loving readers’ heartstrings.
A loquacious, lovable dog narrates the challenges of shelter life as he longs for a home.
Friendly three-legged Chance is the perfect guide to Dogtown, a shelter that houses both warmblooded and robot dogs. In fact, she’s “Management’s lucky charm,” roaming freely without being confined to a cage and leaving kibble for her mouse friend. Life is pretty good. But she still yearns for reunification with her family and, like many of the living pups, harbors suspicion of her robot counterparts, who are convenient and more easily adoptable but lacking in personality. When Metal Head, an oddly engineered e-dog, bonds with a child during a shelter reading program, Chance’s assumptions about heartless robot dogs are upended. As Chance connects with Metal Head, the two make a brief escape into the wider world, and Chance learns a familiar lesson: Everyone longs for a place to belong. Memories of Chance’s happy home loom large in her mind: Easy days with the Bessers, a sweet Black family, were disrupted by a neglectful dogsitter, the accident that cost Chance her leg, and Chance’s flight in search of safety. Chance’s chatty narrative style includes flashbacks, vignettes about fellow shelter pets, and thoughtful observations, for example, about the “boohoos,” or sad new arrivals. The story offers many moments of laughter and reflection, all greatly enhanced by West’s utterly charming grayscale illustrations of irresistible pooches.
Eminently readable and appealing; will tug at dog-loving readers’ heartstrings. (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 19, 2023
ISBN: 9781250811608
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2023
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
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