Skip.
A one-sided, yearslong pranking feud is about to blow up.
Fifth-grade graduate Chadwick Musselman is thrilled that his nemesis, Terry Vance, who has been torturing him with pranks for years, has flunked. Chadwick has the whole summer to work on his “lurking and creeping” campaign to get into the clique of cute Jana Sedgewick “of the glorious red hair” (or at least in a clique that overlaps hers). But his success is limited, and when sixth grade starts it turns out Terry didn’t flunk after all. And because Terry seems to have caused the previous principal to run away, everyone must now attend special classes called “group” to “improve communication,” which Terry uses as an opportunity to gaslight Chadwick. Chadwick enlists the help of his snack-obsessed best friend, Rory, and uber-smart Suvi to combat Terry’s campaign and wage one of his own. Who will win…will anyone? Doan attempts funny but mostly achieves unpleasant with her middle-grade comedy of vengeance. The bad girls (really, all girls except the cartoonishly pedantic Suvi) are vacuous. But the book’s main failing is a complete lack of connection with reality. At the close, it even undercuts its own message that an eye for an eye is a bad idea. Chadwick and Terry seem to be white; the stereotypically brilliant Suvi is an Indian immigrant; and Rory is depicted as black in Andrewson’s illustrations.
Skip. (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: June 26, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-250-15409-5
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: March 17, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
Telgemeier’s bold colors, superior visual storytelling, and unusual subject matter will keep readers emotionally engaged and...
Catrina narrates the story of her mixed-race (Latino/white) family’s move from Southern California to Bahía de la Luna on the Northern California coast.
Dad has a new job, but it’s little sister Maya’s lungs that motivate the move: she has had cystic fibrosis since birth—a degenerative breathing condition. Despite her health, Maya loves adventure, even if her lungs suffer for it and even when Cat must follow to keep her safe. When Carlos, a tall, brown, and handsome teen Ghost Tour guide introduces the sisters to the Bahía ghosts—most of whom were Spanish-speaking Mexicans when alive—they fascinate Maya and she them, but the terrified Cat wants only to get herself and Maya back to safety. When the ghost adventure leads to Maya’s hospitalization, Cat blames both herself and Carlos, which makes seeing him at school difficult. As Cat awakens to the meaning of Halloween and Day of the Dead in this strange new home, she comes to understand the importance of the ghosts both to herself and to Maya. Telgemeier neatly balances enough issues that a lesser artist would split them into separate stories and delivers as much delight textually as visually. The backmatter includes snippets from Telgemeier’s sketchbook and a photo of her in Día makeup.
Telgemeier’s bold colors, superior visual storytelling, and unusual subject matter will keep readers emotionally engaged and unable to put down this compelling tale. (Graphic fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 13, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-545-54061-2
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: July 1, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2016
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