Jackson Jones is a true-blue city kid, down to the soles of his Nike Air Jordans; he loves apartment life, shooting hoops, and writing comic books with best buddy Reuben Casey. Thus it comes as a shock when his mother, who ``never got over'' growing up in the country, gives Jackson not a basketball but a community garden plot for his tenth birthday. Still, Jackson makes plans to grow flowers: they can be a birthday present for his mother—or sold to buy a basketball. Unfortunately, the garden also grows weeds and trouble—with friends like careful Reuben and principled Juana, and with enemies like bully ``Blood'' Green. When flowers finally bloom (``...BOOM! Zinnias zinging. Nasturtiums knocking. Marigolds gleaming like gold''), Jackson can feel that ball in his palm, but then disaster strikes. It takes an artistic garden transformation, confessions, and apologies all around to salve wounds in time for Mama's birthday. The author brings smart, snappy dialogue and characters both funny (e.g., Juana's hellbent-but-sweet siblings) and admirable (big Mailbags Mosely, who ``looks like a buffalo smiling at a violet'' as he labors in his garden, and goes to college when he isn't delivering mail) to this winner of the publisher's first annual Marguerite de Angeli prize for ``fiction that examines the diversity of the American experience.'' Illustrations not seen. (Fiction. 9-12)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-385-31165-6
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1994
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Budding billionaire Greg Kenton has a knack for making money and a serious rival. When he issues his first Chunky Comic Book at the beginning of sixth grade, his neighbor and classmate Maura Shaw produces an alternative. Their quarrel draws the attention of the principal, who bans comics from the school. But when they notice all the other commercial messages in their school, they take their cause to the local school committee. Without belaboring his point, Clements takes on product placement in schools and the need for wealth. “Most people can only use one bathroom at a time,” says Greg’s math teacher, Mr. Z. Greg gets the message; middle-grade readers may ignore it in favor of the delightful spectacle of Greg’s ultimate economic success, a pleasing result for the effort this up-and-coming young businessman puts into his work. Clements weaves intriguing information about comic book illustration into this entertaining, smoothly written story. Selznick’s accompanying black-and-white drawings have the appearance of sketches Greg might have made himself. This hits the jackpot. (Fiction. 9-12)
Pub Date: July 1, 2005
ISBN: 0-689-86683-6
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2005
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
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