A vibrant battle cry for rainbow kids.
Twelve-year-old Joy fights harsh opposition to her cheerleading in this collaboration between trans child activist Shappley and middle-grade author Bunker.
When her best friend, Max, introduces Joy to cheer, she falls in love with the sport. The two get together with another girl, Steph, calling themselves the Sparkle Squad. They plan to practice their cheer routines before tryouts when seventh grade starts. All three girls do make the team, and despite their heavy workload and high academic expectations, Joy loves it—until someone outs her as transgender and she’s banned from the team in accordance with a Texas law limiting participation based on sex assigned at birth. Joy is also required to use the school nurse’s bathroom, and Steph turns hostile. But Max stands by her side, kicking Steph out of the Sparkle Squad, and they’re joined by a mix of supportive cheer team members and kids who feel excluded. When a bill threatening families with trans kids is put before the Texas Senate, Joy, inspired by watching real-world activist Shappley’s Senate testimony, decides the Sparkle Squad is ready to cheer in support of trans rights. Joy is a fundamentally resilient character with an unconditionally supportive mom and the enviable quality of resilience, bouncing back after each obstacle and defeat. Her attitude and proactive nature keep the narrative upbeat while never undermining the serious nature of the issues raised. Main characters read White. Final art not seen.
A vibrant battle cry for rainbow kids. (advice for activists, song list) (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: May 9, 2023
ISBN: 9780063242753
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Clarion/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: March 13, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 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
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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