Even the quietest readers will cheer.
While finding her own voice, a shy sixth grader speaks up for bullied students.
Grieving the death of her father, Lily must adjust from home-schooling to enrolling in a public elementary school as well. Instantly befriended by Hobart, a gregarious boy who interjects his love for the sport of curling whenever he can, Lily sees that he’s bullied by wealthy classmate Ryan, who also targets her. The quiet, observant tween also can’t help but notice that Skylar (a boy presumably living in poverty because he wears the same clothes and has little to eat at lunch) and Dunya (a refugee from Iraq) are more of Ryan’s victims. Erskine aptly conveys Lily’s inner struggle between her reserved demeanor and her desire to stand up to bullying. Motivating Lily is her deathbed promise to her father to find ways to speak up and make her voice heard. With increasing self-esteem, Lily, along with Hobart, Skylar, and Dunya, not only finds ways to address bullying, but to spark kindness and respect throughout their school. Although the effect can be heavy-handed, the metafiction appearance between chapters of “Libro,” the voice of the physical book, adds humor and draws attention to the literary craft. As Lily takes the biggest chance yet, an open ending lets readers envision her success. With the exception of Dunya, Lily and most of her peers present as White.
Even the quietest readers will cheer. (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: May 18, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-06-305815-6
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 25, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021
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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