A worthwhile read, especially for kids with grand aspirations of their own.
Former NFL player Crews draws inspiration from his early years for this graphic novel about a Black boy attending a new school in a different neighborhood.
Terry, who dreams of moving out of his working-class neighborhood and making it big, is excited for his first day at the prestigious Rock City Academy, where he’ll be able to pursue his passion for art (which he balances with a love of sports). At first, Terry loves the school, but a week later, he feels out of place and begins to have doubts, though the chance to participate in an upcoming talent show buoys him. Rick, a popular student, offers to let Terry join his team for the show, but first Terry must bully Xander, another student. Terry does, but he instantly has regrets, and eventually he, Xander, and Terry’s class guide, Rani, form their own team for the talent show. Though the three are different, as they work together, they become closer. But when Terry’s grades begin to suffer, his mother wants him to stop working on the show. However, with the support of friends and family, Terry finds a solution. This story is thematically similar to Jerry Craft’s New Kid (2019) but is simpler and presented with less polish. Still, the friendships and family interactions are realistic, and the colorful drawings pair well with a story where art is a major component. Rani and Rick are brown-skinned, Xander presents White, and characters in both Terry’s school and neighborhood are diverse.
A worthwhile read, especially for kids with grand aspirations of their own. (Graphic novel. 8-12)Pub Date: Nov. 8, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-316-49998-9
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2022
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs.
The Heffley family’s house undergoes a disastrous attempt at home improvement.
When Great Aunt Reba dies, she leaves some money to the family. Greg’s mom calls a family meeting to determine what to do with their share, proposing home improvements and then overruling the family’s cartoonish wish lists and instead pushing for an addition to the kitchen. Before bringing in the construction crew, the Heffleys attempt to do minor maintenance and repairs themselves—during which Greg fails at the work in various slapstick scenes. Once the professionals are brought in, the problems keep getting worse: angry neighbors, terrifying problems in walls, and—most serious—civil permitting issues that put the kibosh on what work’s been done. Left with only enough inheritance to patch and repair the exterior of the house—and with the school’s dismal standardized test scores as a final straw—Greg’s mom steers the family toward moving, opening up house-hunting and house-selling storylines (and devastating loyal Rowley, who doesn’t want to lose his best friend). While Greg’s positive about the move, he’s not completely uncaring about Rowley’s action. (And of course, Greg himself is not as unaffected as he wishes.) The gags include effectively placed callbacks to seemingly incidental events (the “stress lizard” brought in on testing day is particularly funny) and a lampoon of after-school-special–style problem books. Just when it seems that the Heffleys really will move, a new sequence of chaotic trouble and property destruction heralds a return to the status quo. Whew.
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs. (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 8-12)Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3903-3
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Nov. 18, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
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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