Earnest, engaging, and relatable.
A Taiwanese American fifth grader confronts racist bullying.
Most of the time, Měi Yīng feels no different from her friends. She loves playing soccer, eating macaroni and cheese, and searching for frogs. Other times, she feels alone: when strangers make fun of her mother’s accent, when a bully mocks her lunch, and when others watch these things happen and do nothing. Commiserating with friends from Chinese school about the racism they’ve all experienced, Měi Yīng says, “I am just SO tired of being the nice one. Why do we always have to be the nice ones?” Her conflict is ultimately resolved in an age-appropriate and satisfying way. While Měi Yīng’s bully is humanized, it’s clear that he has much work to do before he can be forgiven. For readers who share Měi Yīng’s background, this story will feel painfully accurate; for others, it will be an accessible introduction to racial microaggressions and the harm they inflict. From a calm tai chi session in the garden with Měi Yīng’s visiting grandmother to a rage-filled confrontation, Tsong’s bold, textured illustrations—rendered in grayscale with pops of red and yellow—communicate the emotional complexity of Měi Yīng’s life. Dialogue in English is expressed with white speech bubbles, while dialogue in Mandarin appears in yellow—a particularly effective device for capturing how this community switches between and mixes the two languages in their conversations.
Earnest, engaging, and relatable. (Graphic fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: April 30, 2024
ISBN: 9780525553427
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Kokila
Review Posted Online: Feb. 17, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2024
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs.
The Heffley family’s house undergoes a disastrous attempt at home improvement.
When Great Aunt Reba dies, she leaves some money to the family. Greg’s mom calls a family meeting to determine what to do with their share, proposing home improvements and then overruling the family’s cartoonish wish lists and instead pushing for an addition to the kitchen. Before bringing in the construction crew, the Heffleys attempt to do minor maintenance and repairs themselves—during which Greg fails at the work in various slapstick scenes. Once the professionals are brought in, the problems keep getting worse: angry neighbors, terrifying problems in walls, and—most serious—civil permitting issues that put the kibosh on what work’s been done. Left with only enough inheritance to patch and repair the exterior of the house—and with the school’s dismal standardized test scores as a final straw—Greg’s mom steers the family toward moving, opening up house-hunting and house-selling storylines (and devastating loyal Rowley, who doesn’t want to lose his best friend). While Greg’s positive about the move, he’s not completely uncaring about Rowley’s action. (And of course, Greg himself is not as unaffected as he wishes.) The gags include effectively placed callbacks to seemingly incidental events (the “stress lizard” brought in on testing day is particularly funny) and a lampoon of after-school-special–style problem books. Just when it seems that the Heffleys really will move, a new sequence of chaotic trouble and property destruction heralds a return to the status quo. Whew.
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs. (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 8-12)Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3903-3
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Nov. 18, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
A warm bundle of holiday cheer.
In a funny, feel-good tale, 12-year-old twins separated at birth meet by chance and try to pull off a family switch during the December holidays.
The girls, who are cued white, agree that it would be a delicious prank, but each has a personal motive, too: Aviva Davis, who was adopted by a culturally Jewish mom and a Black dad who was raised Christian, wonders what it’s like to celebrate Christmas. Budding author Holly Martin, who was adopted by a white-presenting single mom, sees a golden opportunity to gather experiences for a school writing assignment about facing her fears. In a plot as sweet as a Hanukkah jelly doughnut and twisty as a Christmas cinnamon roll, the pair just manages to bail one another out of a string of sticky situations—both hilarious and otherwise. They both learn something of the customs and meaning of the two holidays while working through tears and laughter—not to mention conflicts sparked by their very different personalities. Everything culminates in a holiday performance at a local senior center that will have readers rising up to cheer them on. Though their history remains tantalizingly mysterious, for the protagonists, who narrate alternating chapters, it’s mission accomplished and more: Aviva emerges feeling more secure in her Jewish identity, while anxious Holly discovers unexpected depths of courage.
A warm bundle of holiday cheer. (song lyrics) (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Oct. 29, 2024
ISBN: 9781250360670
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2024
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