Engaging and a solid conversation starter.
This follow-up to The Boy at the Back of the Class (2019) features two stories in one, following children who make a difference.
Set in the U.K., the first book saw a young Syrian refugee named Ahmet and his new friends become famous in their quest to reunite Ahmet with his family and keep the government and the queen from “closing the gates and borders to refugees like him.” In The Day We Met the Queen, Ahmet and his pals (including the nameless narrator) have been invited to tea with the monarch. But with a stink bomb going off in the middle of an assembly and a protest blocking the road, will they make it to Buckingham Palace in time? The Great Food Bank Heist centers on a different set of characters—Nelson, his sister, Ashley, and their mum, who are struggling financially and who rely on the local food bank. When someone starts stealing food from the bank, Nelson and his friends decide to stake it out and find out who’s responsible. Raúf builds excitement and suspense in each story, capturing the children’s bravery and their determination while also exploring topics such as racism, bullying, and food insecurity; humor leavens some of the more serious topics. Most characters, apart from Ahmet, read as White.
Engaging and a solid conversation starter. (Fiction. 9-11)Pub Date: Nov. 15, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-593-48819-5
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: Nov. 28, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
Certain to elicit both gales of giggles and winces of sympathy (not to mention recognition) from young readers.
First volume of a planned three, this edited version of an ongoing online serial records a middle-school everykid’s triumphs and (more often) tribulations through the course of a school year.
Largely through his own fault, mishaps seem to plague Greg at every turn, from the minor freak-outs of finding himself permanently seated in class between two pierced stoners and then being saddled with his mom for a substitute teacher, to being forced to wrestle in gym with a weird classmate who has invited him to view his “secret freckle.” Presented in a mix of legible “hand-lettered” text and lots of simple cartoon illustrations with the punch lines often in dialogue balloons, Greg’s escapades, unwavering self-interest and sardonic commentary are a hoot and a half.
Certain to elicit both gales of giggles and winces of sympathy (not to mention recognition) from young readers. (Fiction. 9-11)Pub Date: April 1, 2007
ISBN: 0-8109-9313-9
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2007
SEEN & HEARD
PERSPECTIVES
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