A quietly charming, warmhearted story of enduring friendship.
Two Irish boys growing up near each other but inhabiting entirely different worlds develop a close bond.
This fictionalized account of the childhood of C.S. Lewis opens in Belfast in 1908. Twelve-year-old Davy Caruth and Clive “Jacks” Lewis, nearly 10, meet when Davy accompanies Ma to her housekeeping job at the Lewis’ grand home. Davy’s Da used to work at the shipyard, but with his bad back, he now sells bread from a cart. The family barely scrapes by. Despite their differences, Jacks and Davy bond over a love of reading and escaping into their imaginations; Jacks shares his books with gifted artist Davy, who illustrates his friend’s stories. Their lives diverge when Davy, at age 13, goes to work at the hazardous, grueling shipyard. Not long after, Jacks’ beloved mother dies, and he’s shipped off to a harsh boarding school in England with his brother, Warnie. Sensitive Jacks is miserable, but letters and drawings from Davy lift his spirits. Jacks encourages Davy in his artistic pursuits, which ultimately lead him to take technical drawing classes and get a job designing ships rather than building them. McQuoid uses rich, carefully chosen details to evoke the historical setting. Notably, she compassionately shows the impact of social class constraints and personal hardships on each child without minimizing either of their experiences through simplistic comparisons. The evocative, often poetic, writing will appeal to thoughtful readers.
A quietly charming, warmhearted story of enduring friendship. (facts about C.S. Lewis and Ireland, further reading) (Historical fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: June 3, 2025
ISBN: 9781915071637
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Little Island
Review Posted Online: March 22, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2025
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 emotional, much-needed historical graphic novel.
Sandy and his family, Japanese Canadians, experience hatred and incarceration during World War II.
Sandy Saito loves baseball, and the Vancouver Asahi ballplayers are his heroes. But when they lose in the 1941 semifinals, Sandy’s dad calls it a bad omen. Sure enough, in December 1941, Japan bombs Pearl Harbor in the U.S. The Canadian government begins to ban Japanese people from certain areas, moving them to “dormitories” and setting a curfew. Sandy wants to spend time with his father, but as a doctor, his dad is busy, often sneaking out past curfew to work. One night Papa is taken to “where he [is] needed most,” and the family is forced into an internment camp. Life at the camp isn’t easy, and even with some of the Asahi players playing ball there, it just isn’t the same. Trying to understand and find joy again, Sandy struggles with his new reality and relationship with his father. Based on the true experiences of Japanese Canadians and the Vancouver Asahi team, this graphic novel is a glimpse of how their lives were affected by WWII. The end is a bit abrupt, but it’s still an inspiring and sweet look at how baseball helped them through hardship. The illustrations are all in a sepia tone, giving it an antique look and conveying the emotions and struggles. None of the illustrations of their experiences are overly graphic, making it a good introduction to this upsetting topic for middle-grade readers.
An emotional, much-needed historical graphic novel. (afterword, further resources) (Graphic historical fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Oct. 5, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5253-0334-0
Page Count: 112
Publisher: Kids Can
Review Posted Online: June 28, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2021
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