Laced with pun-filled humor, this high-spirited tale delivers its food for thought refreshingly free of preachiness.
Bucking three years of failed attempts, four neurodiverse pooches set out to pass their first K-9 exam at Barksdale Academy in this series opener.
Team Comeback’s distractible pups face daunting challenges: Nova’s motivated but clumsy; Harley’s fast but distractible; Duke’s powerful but risk averse; mischievous Peanut hates getting his fur muddy. Nova feels their failures keenly, her older sisters having earned Best in Show. With the agility test looming, she creates a team practice course for test prep, ignoring valuable advice from fluffy-but-brainy Athena. Practice goes poorly: Harley abandons her promising start to chase a squirrel; Duke, who can’t control his fear of heights, ends in a mud puddle, splashing a horrified Peanut. Discouraged, Nova confides in Granny Goldenfur, famous for her “pup talks.” Granny’s wise advice includes setting achievable goals instead of comparing oneself to others. Reluctant to relinquish her dream, Nova doubles down on practice sessions. Not all characters with disabilities struggle; Ollie, who uses a canine wheelchair, is a Barksdale high achiever. However, Team Comeback’s invisible challenges are compounded by inflexible expectations that overvalue and reward compliance with rigid and (for some) unattainable standards, failing to encourage and honor creative accommodation strategies. In an influencer-saturated culture, the message couldn’t be more timely: Nurturing diversity involves redefining success. (Finished art not seen.)
Laced with pun-filled humor, this high-spirited tale delivers its food for thought refreshingly free of preachiness. (Fiction. 7-10)Pub Date: Oct. 5, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-338-73272-6
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
It’s hard to argue with success, but guides that actually do the math will be more useful to budding capitalists.
How to raise money for a coveted poster: put your friends to work!
John, founder of the FUBU fashion line and a Shark Tank venture capitalist, offers a self-referential blueprint for financial success. Having only half of the $10 he needs for a Minka J poster, Daymond forks over $1 to buy a plain T-shirt, paints a picture of the pop star on it, sells it for $5, and uses all of his cash to buy nine more shirts. Then he recruits three friends to decorate them with his design and help sell them for an unspecified amount (from a conveniently free and empty street-fair booth) until they’re gone. The enterprising entrepreneur reimburses himself for the shirts and splits the remaining proceeds, which leaves him with enough for that poster as well as a “brand-new business book,” while his friends express other fiscal strategies: saving their share, spending it all on new art supplies, or donating part and buying a (math) book with the rest. (In a closing summation, the author also suggests investing in stocks, bonds, or cryptocurrency.) Though Miles cranks up the visual energy in her sparsely detailed illustrations by incorporating bright colors and lots of greenbacks, the actual advice feels a bit vague. Daymond is Black; most of the cast are people of color. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
It’s hard to argue with success, but guides that actually do the math will be more useful to budding capitalists. (Picture book. 7-9)Pub Date: March 21, 2023
ISBN: 978-0-593-56727-2
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2023
A fitting farewell, still funny, acute, and positive in its view of human nature even in its 37th episode.
A long-running series reaches its closing chapters.
Having, as Kline notes in her warm valedictory acknowledgements, taken 30 years to get through second and third grade, Harry Spooger is overdue to move on—but not just into fourth grade, it turns out, as his family is moving to another town as soon as the school year ends. The news leaves his best friend, narrator “Dougo,” devastated…particularly as Harry doesn’t seem all that fussed about it. With series fans in mind, the author takes Harry through a sort of last-day-of-school farewell tour. From his desk he pulls a burned hot dog and other items that featured in past episodes, says goodbye to Song Lee and other classmates, and even (for the first time ever) leads Doug and readers into his house and memento-strewn room for further reminiscing. Of course, Harry isn’t as blasé about the move as he pretends, and eyes aren’t exactly dry when he departs. But hardly is he out of sight before Doug is meeting Mohammad, a new neighbor from Syria who (along with further diversifying a cast that began as mostly white but has become increasingly multiethnic over the years) will also be starting fourth grade at summer’s end, and planning a written account of his “horrible” buddy’s exploits. Finished illustrations not seen.
A fitting farewell, still funny, acute, and positive in its view of human nature even in its 37th episode. (Fiction. 7-9)Pub Date: Nov. 27, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-451-47963-1
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Sept. 16, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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