A gentle, lighthearted look at friendship and creativity.
Maren’s hometown is holding a contest, and a meeting with her celebrity crush is the prize.
The latest series from Team Cheer! author Jones features a group of best friends who call themselves the Sleepover Girls, as almost every Friday they have a sleepover. The novel starts with character sketches: There’s energetic comedienne Maren, creative bohemian Willow, go-getter Delaney and fashionista Ashley. (Evidently, dark-skinned Delaney and Italian-American Ashley provide diversity.) The other thing that defines Maren is her crush on pop star Luke Lewis. He’s coming to their hometown (his also), Portland, Oregon, suburb of Valley View, for a concert, and the town’s having a contest to determine which resident will get to help present him with a key to the city. The most creative “Love Letter to Valley View” wins. After much brainstorming, Maren and her friends put together a lovingly crafted, highly decorated scrapbook of photos and letters of and from the town’s residents. But then it goes missing from Maren’s unlocked locker, leaving the Sleepover Girls to wonder who took it—was it the wealthy, mean-girl twins, Franny and Zoey Martin?—and whether Maren will miss her chance to meet her idol. The characters are sometimes hard to keep track of, appearing mostly when their skill sets are needed. Topics like divorce and ADHD are not stigmatized but presented as normal facets of life.
A gentle, lighthearted look at friendship and creativity. (personality quiz) (Fiction. 7-11)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-62370-193-2
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Capstone Young Readers
Review Posted Online: July 28, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2014
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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