Bullying is a hot topic, so this average effort joins an already crowded field.
After she accidentally breaks what she believes to be a valuable vase at the home of her babysitter, Sonia, a recent immigrant from Moldova, is blackmailed by the woman’s granddaughter Marta, a classmate.
First Marta demands Sonia’s treasured eraser collection to ensure she’ll keep the secret of the broken vase, but the bully quickly ups the ante, requiring daily payoffs of whatever she can force Sonia to turn over. Sonia, unfortunately, keeps quiet about the situation, believing that otherwise her financially struggling parents will be forced to pay for the vase. Humiliated by the blackmail and other bullying, Sonia avoids school when she can and hides whenever she’s able. Under some eventual prodding from her teacher, she gradually reveals her plight, leading to a too-easy solution. Sonia’s narrative voice rarely rings true, too often sounding oddly authorial. Among illustrator Bisaillon’s frequent, somewhat surreal illustrations is one that is out of sync with the text and, more critically, fails to convey that Marta’s “face looked like a thundercloud.” Still, Sonia’s teacher’s wise, spot-on advice helps make up for the shortcomings of this brief, simplistic novel: “Some kids who are bullied feel so much despair that they want to disappear. They forget about all the people who love them and could help.”
Bullying is a hot topic, so this average effort joins an already crowded field. (Fiction. 7-11)Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-896580-91-3
Page Count: 120
Publisher: Tradewind Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 13, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
It’s hard to argue with success, but guides that actually do the math will be more useful to budding capitalists.
How to raise money for a coveted poster: put your friends to work!
John, founder of the FUBU fashion line and a Shark Tank venture capitalist, offers a self-referential blueprint for financial success. Having only half of the $10 he needs for a Minka J poster, Daymond forks over $1 to buy a plain T-shirt, paints a picture of the pop star on it, sells it for $5, and uses all of his cash to buy nine more shirts. Then he recruits three friends to decorate them with his design and help sell them for an unspecified amount (from a conveniently free and empty street-fair booth) until they’re gone. The enterprising entrepreneur reimburses himself for the shirts and splits the remaining proceeds, which leaves him with enough for that poster as well as a “brand-new business book,” while his friends express other fiscal strategies: saving their share, spending it all on new art supplies, or donating part and buying a (math) book with the rest. (In a closing summation, the author also suggests investing in stocks, bonds, or cryptocurrency.) Though Miles cranks up the visual energy in her sparsely detailed illustrations by incorporating bright colors and lots of greenbacks, the actual advice feels a bit vague. Daymond is Black; most of the cast are people of color. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
It’s hard to argue with success, but guides that actually do the math will be more useful to budding capitalists. (Picture book. 7-9)Pub Date: March 21, 2023
ISBN: 978-0-593-56727-2
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2023
A nice and timely depiction of an immigrant child experience.
Speaking up is hard when you’re shy, and it can be even harder if you’ve got two languages in your head.
Third-grader Estrella “Stella” Díaz, is a shy, Mexican-American girl who draws pictures and loves fish, and she lives in Chicago with her mother and older brother, Nick. Jenny, Stella’s best friend, isn’t in her class this year, and Stella feels lonely—especially when she sees that Vietnamese-American Jenny is making new friends. When a new student, Stanley Mason, arrives in her class, Stella introduces herself in Spanish to the white former Texan without realizing it and becomes embarrassed. Surely Stanley won’t want to befriend her after that—but he seems to anyway. Stella often confuses the pronunciation between English and Spanish sounds and takes speech classes. As an immigrant with a green card—a “legal alien,” according to her teacher—Stella feels that she doesn’t fully belong to either American culture or Mexican culture, and this is nicely reflected in her not being fully comfortable in either language, an experience familiar to many immigrant and first-generation children. This early-middle-grade book features italicized Spanish words and phrases with direct translations right after. There is a small subplot about bullying from Stella’s classmate, and readers will cheer as they see how, with the help of her friends and family, Stella overcomes her shyness and gives a presentation on Jacques Cousteau. Dominguez’s friendly black-and-white drawings grace most pages.
A nice and timely depiction of an immigrant child experience. (Fiction. 7-10)Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-62672-858-5
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: Nov. 12, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2017
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