Lively, fun, and deeply relatable.
Fifth grade is full of drama over friendship and crushes.
Charlotte “Charli” Wilson and Alex Andropov have been best friends since preschool. They have long-held traditions, including a secret signal when one of them wants to leave an uncomfortable situation, and they’re fiercely protective of each other’s vulnerabilities: Charli has webbed toes, and Alex still sleeps with his blankie. As they prepare to enter fifth grade, their hormones are ramping up. Charli can’t stop thinking about Henry, who moved here recently from California, while Alex is crushing on the free-spirited Kiara. When Alex lets it spill that Charli likes Henry, she’s furious. Will the two ever make up? Told in diary format, the book alternates between Charli’s and Alex’s perspectives. Both protagonists are well developed, and their personalities come through. Charli’s entries are effusive and peppered with doodles of hearts and flowers, while Alex’s writing is comparatively terse, with comic book–style illustrations. Readers will relate to the characters’ big feelings, from their all-encompassing crushes to the angst of feuding with a BFF. The conflict between Charli and Alex keeps the story moving fast. The book includes plenty of humor, such as a memory of a ladybug flying up Alex’s nose, though some references may go over kids’ heads. The illustrations are appealing and break up the text, making it accessible to reluctant readers. Characters have skin the white of the page; hairstyles imply some diversity.
Lively, fun, and deeply relatable. (Fiction. 7-11)Pub Date: Aug. 27, 2024
ISBN: 9780063038714
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 17, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2024
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
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
SEEN & HEARD
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