Enjoyable and heartwarming.
After moving to a new town, 14-year-old Skye Richardson wallows in self-pity until she is befriended by Digby Jones, an intellectually challenged co-worker.
Relocating from Calgary to Nova Scotia, where her mother grew up, means leaving behind her friends, her babysitting job, and her older brother. Frustrated, Skye self-sabotages, thwarting possible new relationships at school and spending hours doing homework she “never planned to hand in” in a cafe that feels more welcoming than her new house. Cafe co-owner Cheryl hires Skye to work part time after school—on Digby’s recommendation. Skye jumps at the opportunity to make some money, having used her babysitting earnings to buy an all-black wardrobe and dye her hair black with blue tips. When Digby asks Skye to keep his secret of having won a million-dollar lottery—and later asks for help figuring out how to divide up the money to donate to others—she is drawn into Digby’s life story and moved by his generous heart. Skye also helps Digby navigate the unsettling territory that accompanies leaks about winning lottery tickets. The writing is accessible and at times humorous. Readers will be engaged by plot twists and by Skye’s personal growth. The text makes clear that Digby is developmentally disabled, though no labels are used. Characters are assumed White.
Enjoyable and heartwarming. (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: April 11, 2023
ISBN: 9781459834064
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Orca
Review Posted Online: Feb. 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
A warm bundle of holiday cheer.
In a funny, feel-good tale, 12-year-old twins separated at birth meet by chance and try to pull off a family switch during the December holidays.
The girls, who are cued white, agree that it would be a delicious prank, but each has a personal motive, too: Aviva Davis, who was adopted by a culturally Jewish mom and a Black dad who was raised Christian, wonders what it’s like to celebrate Christmas. Budding author Holly Martin, who was adopted by a white-presenting single mom, sees a golden opportunity to gather experiences for a school writing assignment about facing her fears. In a plot as sweet as a Hanukkah jelly doughnut and twisty as a Christmas cinnamon roll, the pair just manages to bail one another out of a string of sticky situations—both hilarious and otherwise. They both learn something of the customs and meaning of the two holidays while working through tears and laughter—not to mention conflicts sparked by their very different personalities. Everything culminates in a holiday performance at a local senior center that will have readers rising up to cheer them on. Though their history remains tantalizingly mysterious, for the protagonists, who narrate alternating chapters, it’s mission accomplished and more: Aviva emerges feeling more secure in her Jewish identity, while anxious Holly discovers unexpected depths of courage.
A warm bundle of holiday cheer. (song lyrics) (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Oct. 29, 2024
ISBN: 9781250360670
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2024
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
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