It’s time for the Wimpy Kid machine to grind to a halt
Greg Heffley, that most profoundly unlikable of antiheroes, is back with another litany of complaints.
The book opens with a lengthy lampoon of the efforts of overeager parents to produce genius children (completely fruitless, as Greg’s post-utero experience clearly demonstrates) and ends with an enormously unpleasant Valentine’s Day dance. In between, Greg schemes for the upper hand, as always. The recession brings a cautionary example to the household in the person of his loser uncle Gary, who crashes on the couch while recouping losses from the purchase of cartons of misspelled souvenir “Botson” T-shirts. Oh, the irony: Though Greg recognizes his uncle as a creepy jerk, he does not see in Gary his inevitable future self. Will readers? Seven books into the series, one would expect to see some growth in Greg’s character, but no. He's as self-serving and manipulative as ever, possibly even more so, and by this point, there are few laughs left to mine. One’s left wondering, what is the enduring appeal? Given that Kinney’s oeuvre has spawned an entire subgenre (though he did not originate it—Marissa Moss' Amelia’s Notebook and its sequels combined faux-handwritten journals with drawings beginning in 1995), it's mystifying that kids are not flocking to the many alternatives now available.
It’s time for the Wimpy Kid machine to grind to a halt . (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 8-12)Pub Date: Nov. 13, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-4197-0584-7
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Nov. 16, 2012
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
Poignant and heartwarming.
Zephyrina the cat, the “Robin Hood of felines,” rescues discarded toys so they can have new lives.
Zephyrina brings toys back to the apartment she shares with Elizaveta and her daughter, Dasha, refugees from war-torn Ukraine. Dasha reconditions Zephyrina’s rescues and sets them outside for three days, just in case they have owners who want to reclaim them. Afterward, they join the other toys in the parlor—the Second Chances Home for the Tossed and Treasured. Dasha and Elizaveta don’t know that the toys are sentient. At midnight they abandon their rigid daytime postures to cavort and play, overseen by their leader, Pocket, a tiny mascot bear made to comfort soldiers during World War I. One night, Zephyrina brings back a dirty old bear, and Pocket is astounded. The new arrival, Berwon, might come from a lost shipment of the first-ever stuffed bears, sent from Germany to the U.S. in 1903—and if so, he’s worth a fortune. In the ensuing antics, the unpleasant villain Picky Vicky covets Berwon, and a kind museum curator does, too, but for different reasons. Applegate’s writing is exquisitely nuanced; she couches profound themes in accessible language that depicts relatable situations. Gentle, generous Elizaveta and Dasha poignantly underscore the human impact of wars. Santoso’s enchanting, delicate, black-and-white illustrations bring the timeless feeling of a classic to this hopeful, humanizing story of the distressed looking out for each other.
Poignant and heartwarming. (author’s note) (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 9, 2025
ISBN: 9781250904362
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: July 3, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025
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