Heartfelt and engaging.
When an odd package arrives, Rica Baptista is intrigued.
Something mysterious is happening at Rica’s house: Uncle Moose has sent a box addressed to himself! Strangest of all, no one else seems as curious as Rica, not even her teenage cousin Serenity, who’s staying with Rica’s family for the week while Serenity’s father (Rica’s Uncle Will) goes camping with her twin siblings. What could be in the box? Rica and BFF Laini mull the possibilities: a rainbow polka-dotted unicorn? An alien? Uncle Moose will be visiting in a few days, and he’ll let the family know what’s inside when he arrives, but Rica can’t wait. Sharing a bedroom with Serenity proves a lot less magical than Rica’s fantasies, especially after a video call with Uncle Will that leaves Serenity sulky. As Rica realizes that her cousin feels left out, she and Laini decide to cheer her up—after all, what if the box’s secret item is the ability to make people feel better? Rica once more proves an enchanting narrator with an authentic voice, by turns wildly imaginative and grounded in her compassion for Serenity. Her Cabo Verdean American family is loving and funny, gently bantering while doing their best to support Serenity; cultural references (for instance, Momma preparing a stew known as cachupa) are gently woven in. Jose’s black-and-white artwork makes effective use of shading, depicting characters with distinctive facial features. Laini is light-skinned.
Heartfelt and engaging. (Fiction. 6-10)Pub Date: Nov. 11, 2025
ISBN: 9781536227673
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2025
A kind child in a book for middle-grade readers? There’s no downside to that.
Beatrice Zinker is a kinder, gentler Judy Moody.
Beatrice doesn’t want to be fit in a box. Her first word was “WOW,” not “Mom.” She does her best thinking upside down and prefers to dress like a ninja. Like Judy Moody, she has patient parents and a somewhat annoying younger brother. (She also has a perfectly ordinary older sister.) Beatrice spends all summer planning a top-secret spy operation complete with secret codes and a secret language (pig Latin). But on the first day of third grade, her best friend, Lenny (short for Eleanor), shows up in a dress, with a new friend who wants to play veterinarian at recess. Beatrice, essentially a kind if somewhat quirky kid, struggles to see the upside of the situation and ends up with two friends instead of one. Line drawings on almost every spread add to the humor and make the book accessible to readers who might otherwise balk at its 160 pages. Thankfully, the rhymes in the text do not continue past the first chapter. Children will enjoy the frequent puns and Beatrice’s preference for climbing trees and hanging upside down. The story drifts dangerously close to pedantry when Beatrice asks for advice from a grandmotherly neighbor but is saved by likable characters and upside-down cake. Beatrice seems to be white; Lenny’s surname, Santos, suggests that she may be Latina; their school is a diverse one.
A kind child in a book for middle-grade readers? There’s no downside to that. (Fiction. 6-10)Pub Date: Sept. 19, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4847-6738-2
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Review Posted Online: July 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 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
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