Both meandering and implausible even when suspending disbelief.
A girl’s quest for treasure alienates her friends.
Mimi lives in an apartment in Periwinkle Tower, where most of her friends live as well. Their current project is to dig a tunnel so that Sofie, who isn’t lucky enough to live in Periwinkle Tower, can sneak in and live among her friends. What Mimi hasn’t told her friends is that her reasons for helping dig the tunnel aren’t entirely altruistic: She’s hoping to find buried treasure. When that information comes to light, and after Mimi insults her friend Yoshi and calls him “stupid,” her friends abandon her. She has to swallow some humble pie if she wants to win them back. Though their town of Pueblo del Mar is ostensibly in the United States and Mimi and her friends attend school, there are no parents in this world, and the children drive their own cars and cook their own food. The shallow conflicts in the story shift chapter by chapter, and the worldbuilding is neither realistic nor fantastical, putting it in an uncomfortable nowhereland. Bobblehead-style illustrations present a diverse cast of characters, but Mimi’s ever present sombrero (a gift from Yoshi after a bad haircut) feels like a cheap way to signal that the character is Latina. It seems the book wants us to laugh with it, but it’s much easier to laugh at it.
Both meandering and implausible even when suspending disbelief. (Fiction. 5-9)Pub Date: Oct. 8, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4424-5892-5
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Beach Lane/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2019
Another quirky take on the series theme that it’s cool to be kind.
The cool beans again step up to do a timorous fellow legume a fava…this time at the pool.
Will a rash decision to tackle the multistory super-slide lead to another embarrassing watery fail for our shy protagonist? Nope, for up the stairs right behind comes a trio of cool beans, each a different type and color, all clad in nothing but dark shades. They make an offer: “It’s not as scary if you go with friends!” As the knobby nerd explains once the thrilling ride down is done, “They all realized that I just needed some encouragement and support.” Just to make sure that both cool and uncool readers get the message, the narrator lets us know that “there are plenty of kind folks who have my back. They’re always there when I need them.” The beany bonhomie doesn’t end at the bottom of the slide, with all gliding down to the shallow end of the pool (“3 INCHES. NO DIVING”) for a splashy finale. This latest early reader starring characters from John and Oswald’s immensely popular Food Group series will be a hit with fans. Fun accessories, such as a bean who rocks pink cat-eye frames, add some pizzazz to the chromatically and somatotypically varied cast.
Another quirky take on the series theme that it’s cool to be kind. (Easy reader. 5-7)Pub Date: March 26, 2024
ISBN: 9780063329560
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 17, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
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
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