An urban story that explores the universal themes of integrity, trust, and respect in relationships.
A 10-year-old girl copes with a family move as well as challenges with both new and old friends in this third book about Celie Valentine.
Celie Valentine Altman’s family moves from Brooklyn to Manhattan in order to allow Celie’s grandmother, who is becoming increasingly confused as she ages, to live with them, along with a live-in nurse. Although the new place is only about an hour by subway away from their previous home, Celie is forced to adjust quickly to life without sharing a room with her sister as well as to a new school and new friends. Via first-person diary entries on ruled paper, spy notes, and sketches made over the course of just 10 days, readers get to follow along with Celie’s moral dilemmas: should she go along with the pushy Mary Majors, who seems to invite trouble wherever she goes? Should she continue to pry into her sister’s boyfriend challenges against her sister’s wishes? Can she be friends with both Mary and Charlie? Shouldn’t she tell her parents when plans change or something is unsafe? When her decisions culminate in a minor disaster, Celie is grateful that her loving parents and grandmother can help her balance her world again. Celie and her family are white, as are Mary Majors and Charlie; her doodles reveal an awareness of New York’s cultural mix.
An urban story that explores the universal themes of integrity, trust, and respect in relationships. (Fiction. 8-11)Pub Date: March 28, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-62979-672-7
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Boyds Mills
Review Posted Online: Dec. 5, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2016
However the compelling fitness of theme and event and the apt but unexpected imagery (the opening sentences compare the...
At a time when death has become an acceptable, even voguish subject in children's fiction, Natalie Babbitt comes through with a stylistic gem about living forever.
Protected Winnie, the ten-year-old heroine, is not immortal, but when she comes upon young Jesse Tuck drinking from a secret spring in her parents' woods, she finds herself involved with a family who, having innocently drunk the same water some 87 years earlier, haven't aged a moment since. Though the mood is delicate, there is no lack of action, with the Tucks (previously suspected of witchcraft) now pursued for kidnapping Winnie; Mae Tuck, the middle aged mother, striking and killing a stranger who is onto their secret and would sell the water; and Winnie taking Mae's place in prison so that the Tucks can get away before she is hanged from the neck until....? Though Babbitt makes the family a sad one, most of their reasons for discontent are circumstantial and there isn't a great deal of wisdom to be gleaned from their fate or Winnie's decision not to share it.
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1975
ISBN: 0312369816
Page Count: 164
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: April 13, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1975
A classic sibling rivalry tale that still satisfies to the last drop.
In this graphic novel adaptation of Davies’ 2007 book, hurt feelings propel an intense business battle.
Fourth grader Evan can’t stand the thought of his brainy younger sister, Jessie, skipping a grade and joining his class this fall. Intelligent but emotionally immature, Jessie sometimes misses social cues and wishes she could be more like the gregarious Evan. These insecurities set the stage for a contest to see who can raise the most money selling lemonade this summer. Will Jessie’s book smarts beat Evan’s people skills? The beauty of this story lies in how each sibling’s strengths rub off on the other: Evan brushes up on his math, while Jessie tentatively makes a new friend. De la Vega’s polished cartoon artwork creatively translates Davies’ metaphors to a visual medium. When the author compares the “mean words inside Evan…fighting to get out” to bats, illustrations depict the furry animals emerging from beneath his shirt; Jessie’s negative thoughts take the form of a tiny purple creature irritatingly tapping her shoulder. Tender scenes depict flashbacks of the siblings supporting each other through their parents’ divorce. The book has business savvy to match the emotional beats (each chapter opens with an entrepreneurial definition that relates to the plot), and several scenes feature math problems that readers can solve for themselves. Evan and Jessie appear white; both have friends of color.
A classic sibling rivalry tale that still satisfies to the last drop. (business tips) (Graphic fiction. 8-10)Pub Date: April 29, 2025
ISBN: 9780063310407
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Clarion/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2025
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