by Jennifer L. Holm ; illustrated by Matthew Holm & Lark Pien ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 21, 2021
A buoyant summer idyll with a few mild downs but far more ups.
Deep waters literal and otherwise beckon as another summer brings another birthday—the big 13th!—a first real job, and more growing up for Sunny.
The prospect of a crushingly boring summer of 1978 turns brighter with Sunny’s discovery that classmate Tony is in charge of the local country club’s poolside snack bar. Though the high diving board defeats her, her willingness to lend a hand during a sudden rush at the stand leads to a job offer—and a front-row seat for summer flirtations and other instructional events in and around the pool. Meanwhile, shared experiences turn what begins as a nodding acquaintance between the two middle schoolers into something closer as summer wears on. Drenching their episodic tale in 1970s detail (Rocket Pops, The Muppet Show, Ben-Gay ointment, Starsky and Hutch!), the Holms and colorist Pien construct a fluent narrative that runs invisibly but irresistibly beneath sparse but natural-sounding dialogue and equally economical but wonderfully expressive cartoon panels astir with significant looks, gestures, and reaction shots. Sunny does nerve herself at summer’s end to tackle the high board, and though a final scene of she and Tony standing together in the school hallway is wordless, their postures alone convey a world of meaning. With exceptions established in previous episodes, Sunny and most of her circle are White, but group scenes include racial diversity.
A buoyant summer idyll with a few mild downs but far more ups. (Graphic historical fiction. 10-13)Pub Date: Sept. 21, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-338-23317-9
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Graphix/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: July 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2021
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by Soman Chainani ; illustrated by Iacopo Bruno ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 14, 2013
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic.
Chainani works an elaborate sea change akin to Gregory Maguire’s Wicked (1995), though he leaves the waters muddied.
Every four years, two children, one regarded as particularly nice and the other particularly nasty, are snatched from the village of Gavaldon by the shadowy School Master to attend the divided titular school. Those who survive to graduate become major or minor characters in fairy tales. When it happens to sweet, Disney princess–like Sophie and her friend Agatha, plain of features, sour of disposition and low of self-esteem, they are both horrified to discover that they’ve been dropped not where they expect but at Evil and at Good respectively. Gradually—too gradually, as the author strings out hundreds of pages of Hogwarts-style pranks, classroom mishaps and competitions both academic and romantic—it becomes clear that the placement wasn’t a mistake at all. Growing into their true natures amid revelations and marked physical changes, the two spark escalating rivalry between the wings of the school. This leads up to a vicious climactic fight that sees Good and Evil repeatedly switching sides. At this point, readers are likely to feel suddenly left behind, as, thanks to summary deus ex machina resolutions, everything turns out swell(ish).
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic. (Fantasy. 11-13)Pub Date: May 14, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-06-210489-2
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2013
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by Soman Chainani ; illustrated by Iacopo Bruno
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BOOK TO SCREEN
by Stacy McAnulty ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 2020
Cinematic, over-the-top decadence, a tense race against time, and lessons on what’s truly valuable.
A reward of $5,000,000 almost ruins everything for two seventh graders.
On a class trip to New York City, Felix and Benji find a wallet belonging to social media billionaire Laura Friendly. Benji, a well-off, chaotic kid with learning disabilities, swipes $20 from the wallet before they send it back to its owner. Felix, a poor, shy, rule-follower, reluctantly consents. So when Laura Friendly herself arrives to give them a reward for the returned wallet, she’s annoyed. To teach her larcenous helpers a lesson, Laura offers them a deal: a $20,000 college scholarship or slightly over $5 million cash—but with strings attached. The boys must spend all the money in 30 days, with legal stipulations preventing them from giving anything away, investing, or telling anyone about it. The glorious windfall quickly grows to become a chore and then a torment as the boys appear increasingly selfish and irresponsible to the adults in their lives. They rent luxury cars, hire a (wonderful) philosophy undergrad as a chauffeur, take their families to Disney World, and spend thousands on in-app game purchases. Yet, surrounded by hedonistically described piles of loot and filthy lucre, the boys long for simpler fundamentals. The absorbing spending spree reads like a fun family film, gleefully stuffed with the very opulence it warns against. Major characters are White.
Cinematic, over-the-top decadence, a tense race against time, and lessons on what’s truly valuable. (mathematical explanations) (Fiction. 10-12)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-17525-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: June 29, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2020
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