Make a move on this book—its heart will cheer your soul.
When Sunny joins the school dance team, she discovers some important things about friendship—and about herself.
Sunny Park, a Korean American seventh grader, has been best friends with Bailey Stern, a White girl, since third grade. Sunny prides herself on being a good friend: She is always there for Bailey, supporting her through her parents’ divorce and being available at a moment’s notice. She doesn’t even let Bailey’s disparaging remarks about her Korean identity or her love of K-pop bother her. It’s always been just the two of them, doing everything together, like taking ballet—and then both quitting right after Sunny landed the lead in The Nutcracker. Now, Bailey wants to try out for Ranchito Mesa Middle School’s dance team, and Sunny, who suffers from social anxiety disorder, agrees to do it too. But when she makes the team and Bailey doesn’t, Sunny begins the journey of discovering her own resilience, making new friends, and realizing what really makes for strong relationships. Kim does a stellar job of portraying different types of friendships, illustrating how healthy and unhealthy ones can differ and creating an authentic road map for tweens who are navigating the social complexities of middle school. At the same time, she infuses Sunny’s growth as a friend, an artist, and a leader with fun and joy—especially during the dance scenes.
Make a move on this book—its heart will cheer your soul. (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Aug. 15, 2023
ISBN: 9780525555001
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Kokila
Review Posted Online: May 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 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
PERSPECTIVES
SEEN & HEARD
An insubstantial story that offers a prosocial message.
Two boys equally blessed with both talent and ego vie for supremacy in their school’s annual “creative storytelling competition.”
J is “by far the best artist in the entire fifth grade”; K has “become known as the best writer in the entire fifth grade.” Naturally, each one is determined to crush it in The Contest, and each decides an illustrated story is the way to go. The competitive boys try to undermine one another by passing along fake tips for success, each hoping to destroy his opponent’s story. K advises J to “write what you DON’T know” and to use sixth-person narration. “J’s Secrets to Drawing Really Good” are just as catastrophic and include drawing with your nondominant hand and inserting mistakes to keep readers engaged. Creative hijinks ensue. Craft and Alexander have become known on social media for the jocular trash talk they heap on each other; J and K are their fictional child avatars. As an internet bit doled out in small doses, their frenemy-ship is amusing; as a sustained story about storytelling, it’s thin on both character and plot development. Authorial interjections exhort readers to look up 75-cent vocabulary, often used in barbs directed at each other; the latter feel like in-jokes more than playful attempts to engage young readers. Kids may enjoy spotting references to popular children’s authors among the characters’ names, and budding authors and illustrators will benefit from the advice. J and K are both Black; their classmates and teachers are racially diverse.
An insubstantial story that offers a prosocial message. (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: May 6, 2025
ISBN: 9780316582681
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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