Kitschy and tedious
Lou Lou and Pea are back for a second adventure following series opener Lou Lou & Pea and the Mural Mystery (2016).
Fifth-grade best friends, the white, budding horticulturist Lou Lou (short for Louise) and Latina fashionista Pea (short for Peacock) are thrilled to be helping their neighborhood, El Corazón, host the citywide Bicentennial Bonanza. When the mayor must leave town for a family emergency and the vice mayor takes the reins of the event planning, things go awry. Vice Mayor Argyle, who is a villain straight from vaudeville melodrama with his garish clothing and slick goatee, claims to have discovered the long-lost diary of the city’s founder, and its contents claim that rival neighborhood Verde Valley is the rightful host of the town anniversary fiesta. Lou Lou and Pea set out to prove the diary is a fake and reclaim their neighborhood’s hosting role. The ending is a foregone conclusion, though it takes several chapters longer than necessary to arrive at the destination. Despite the verbosity, silly alliterative names and the fanciful premise seem written for a younger audience than the reading level would suggest. Apart from half-Mexican Pea, Latinx characters appear in several supporting roles, and Spanish vocabulary and location names are sprinkled throughout the text. However, starting with the clunky “Verde Valley” and extending to awkward use of Spanish in dialogue, the feeling is one of a predominantly white culture that has co-opted Latinx culture and language as its own.
Kitschy and tedious . (Mystery. 8-12)Pub Date: April 24, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-374-30298-6
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
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
A real gem.
A 10-year old girl learns to adjust to a strange town, makes some fascinating friends, and fills the empty space in her heart thanks to a big old stray dog in this lyrical, moving, and enchanting book by a fresh new voice.
India Opal’s mama left when she was only three, and her father, “the preacher,” is absorbed in his own loss and in the work of his new ministry at the Open-Arms Baptist Church of Naomi [Florida]. Enter Winn-Dixie, a dog who “looked like a big piece of old brown carpet that had been left out in the rain.” But, this dog had a grin “so big that it made him sneeze.” And, as Opal says, “It’s hard not to immediately fall in love with a dog who has a good sense of humor.” Because of Winn-Dixie, Opal meets Miss Franny Block, an elderly lady whose papa built her a library of her own when she was just a little girl and she’s been the librarian ever since. Then, there’s nearly blind Gloria Dump, who hangs the empty bottle wreckage of her past from the mistake tree in her back yard. And, Otis, oh yes, Otis, whose music charms the gerbils, rabbits, snakes and lizards he’s let out of their cages in the pet store. Brush strokes of magical realism elevate this beyond a simple story of friendship to a well-crafted tale of community and fellowship, of sweetness, sorrow and hope. And, it’s funny, too.
A real gem. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: March 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-7636-0776-2
Page Count: 182
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2000
SEEN & HEARD
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