Inviting, sweet, and timely
A friendship story kicks off a brand-new chapter-book series.
Maddie and her best friend, bespectacled Emily, are two peas in a DIY pod. The two girls have a shared passion for crafting. Maddie is a pro with jewelry, and Emily has an affinity for wood crafts. All is well and right in the world for the girls until a new student, Bella Diaz, comes to Birding Creek Elementary and disrupts the equilibrium of their friendship. Emily seeks refuge in the art room and with a new, male friend, Sam, whose prowess with paint and pencil, as well as sage advice, is just what Emily needs to mend fences. Soon all four children are combining forces on a new project: creating a craft studio out of the old shed in Bella’s backyard. From coding to sewing, Emily, Maddie, and their new friends are fully engulfed in the STEAM and maker ethos of the moment. The simple text moves quickly and will readily engage other burgeoning makers, who are sure to find kindred spirits among the studio members, who are diverse culturally as well as by gender: Maddie is black, Emily is white, Bella is Latina, and Sam is South Asian, all communicated via illustrations and naming conventions. Yan’s illustrations add interest and context clues for early readers, and backmatter includes instructions on how to make a friendship bracelet of one’s own.
Inviting, sweet, and timely . (Fiction. 5-9)Pub Date: March 27, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5344-0908-8
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Little Simon/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2018
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
The dynamic interaction between the characters invites readers to take risks, push boundaries, and have a little unscripted...
Reinvention is the name of the game for two blobs of clay.
A blue-eyed gray blob and a brown-eyed brown blob sit side by side, unsure as to what’s going to happen next. The gray anticipates an adventure, while the brown appears apprehensive. A pair of hands descends, and soon, amid a flurry of squishing and prodding and poking and sculpting, a handsome gray wolf and a stately brown owl emerge. The hands disappear, leaving the friends to their own devices. The owl is pleased, but the wolf convinces it that the best is yet to come. An ear pulled here and an extra eye placed there, and before you can shake a carving stick, a spurt of frenetic self-exploration—expressed as a tangled black scribble—reveals a succession of smug hybrid beasts. After all, the opportunity to become a “pig-e-phant” doesn’t come around every day. But the sound of approaching footsteps panics the pair of Picassos. How are they going to “fix [them]selves” on time? Soon a hippopotamus and peacock are staring bug-eyed at a returning pair of astonished hands. The creative naiveté of the “clay mates” is perfectly captured by Petty’s feisty, spot-on dialogue: “This was your idea…and it was a BAD one.” Eldridge’s endearing sculpted images are photographed against the stark white background of an artist’s work table to great effect.
The dynamic interaction between the characters invites readers to take risks, push boundaries, and have a little unscripted fun of their own . (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: June 20, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-316-30311-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2017
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