A novel treatment of a familiar situation delivered with fizz and aplomb.
A refreshing spin on a story about fitting in and overcoming obstacles features two viewpoints written by two authors.
Just arrived from Bangalore, Ravi Suryanarayanan is eager to make friends at his new American school. When he spots Dillon Samreen, a popular, cool classmate with swoopy bangs and a big smile, Ravi believes the two could become great friends. Even if Dillon is an ABCD—American-Born Confused Desi—another name for U.S.–born children of Indian immigrants, Ravi believes catching Dillon’s attention will take him from the lame table in the cafeteria to where the popular kids eat. Meanwhile, all white Joe Sylvester wants is not to catch the attention of Dillon Samreen. Joe is large and awkward and completely aware of how Dillon can smile at you one minute then torture you forever and ever. When Ravi, Joe, and Dillon wind up in Mrs. Beam’s class, the trio are on a collision course that will end with the unlikeliest of friendships. Veteran Weeks pairs with newcomer Varadarajan for this tale told in Ravi’s and Joe’s alternating first-person narrations. Varadarajan’s voice offers an authenticity and liveliness that perfectly pairs with Weeks’ realistic, quietly poignant style. Using the daily school-lunch schedule as a structural device, the authors bring alive a humdrum, ordinary routine, making it crackle with emotion and humor. Glossaries of Hindi and American terms and two recipes round out the book.
A novel treatment of a familiar situation delivered with fizz and aplomb. (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: May 10, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-545-84660-8
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2016
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
Poignant and heartwarming.
Zephyrina the cat, the “Robin Hood of felines,” rescues discarded toys so they can have new lives.
Zephyrina brings toys back to the apartment she shares with Elizaveta and her daughter, Dasha, refugees from war-torn Ukraine. Dasha reconditions Zephyrina’s rescues and sets them outside for three days, just in case they have owners who want to reclaim them. Afterward, they join the other toys in the parlor—the Second Chances Home for the Tossed and Treasured. Dasha and Elizaveta don’t know that the toys are sentient. At midnight they abandon their rigid daytime postures to cavort and play, overseen by their leader, Pocket, a tiny mascot bear made to comfort soldiers during World War I. One night, Zephyrina brings back a dirty old bear, and Pocket is astounded. The new arrival, Berwon, might come from a lost shipment of the first-ever stuffed bears, sent from Germany to the U.S. in 1903—and if so, he’s worth a fortune. In the ensuing antics, the unpleasant villain Picky Vicky covets Berwon, and a kind museum curator does, too, but for different reasons. Applegate’s writing is exquisitely nuanced; she couches profound themes in accessible language that depicts relatable situations. Gentle, generous Elizaveta and Dasha poignantly underscore the human impact of wars. Santoso’s enchanting, delicate, black-and-white illustrations bring the timeless feeling of a classic to this hopeful, humanizing story of the distressed looking out for each other.
Poignant and heartwarming. (author’s note) (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 9, 2025
ISBN: 9781250904362
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: July 3, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025
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