Scrumptiously entertaining and informative.
Sugar and spice and all things nice are the focus of this eye-catching and educational graphic nonfiction title.
Enthusiastic, food-loving sprite Peri and her friends and fellow sprites, Fee and Fada—a racially diverse, colorfully coiffed trio—offer readers an overview of the history of desserts, insights into the science behind cooking and baking, and a few tempting recipes. The first chapter, focusing on ice cream, covers frozen dishes from ancient Rome and the Middle East, 19th-century European ice cream carts, and the Japanese American inventor of mochi ice cream, with stops along the way including sorbet (and its varying incarnations), the supposed invention of the waffle cone at the St. Louis World’s Fair, and modern Korean variations on the classic shaved ice dessert bingsu, among other topics. Other sections follow a similar format as they look at cakes, brownies, doughnuts, pies, gummies, cookies, and macarons. World maps inserted throughout help readers understand where various food items originated. Sections labeled “Story Time” concisely and colorfully explain how certain dishes came to be; when the stories are more legend than fact, the real history immediately follows. Elliott presents readers with delectable morsels of knowledge: The immersive, interactive feel and the vibrant and creatively detailed illustrations that evoke an old-fashioned candy shop will sustain readers’ attention.
Scrumptiously entertaining and informative. (bibliography, profiles of food sprites) (Graphic nonfiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Nov. 30, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-12437-6
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Random House Graphic
Review Posted Online: Aug. 15, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
With young readers diagnosed with anxiety in ever increasing numbers, this book offers a necessary mirror to many.
Young Raina is 9 when she throws up for the first time that she remembers, due to a stomach bug. Even a year later, when she is in fifth grade, she fears getting sick.
Raina begins having regular stomachaches that keep her home from school. She worries about sharing food with her friends and eating certain kinds of foods, afraid of getting sick or food poisoning. Raina’s mother enrolls her in therapy. At first Raina isn’t sure about seeing a therapist, but over time she develops healthy coping mechanisms to deal with her stress and anxiety. Her therapist helps her learn to ground herself and relax, and in turn she teaches her classmates for a school project. Amping up the green, wavy lines to evoke Raina’s nausea, Telgemeier brilliantly produces extremely accurate visual representations of stress and anxiety. Thought bubbles surround Raina in some panels, crowding her with anxious “what if”s, while in others her negative self-talk appears to be literally crushing her. Even as she copes with anxiety disorder and what is eventually diagnosed as mild irritable bowel syndrome, she experiences the typical stresses of school life, going from cheer to panic in the blink of an eye. Raina is white, and her classmates are diverse; one best friend is Korean American.
With young readers diagnosed with anxiety in ever increasing numbers, this book offers a necessary mirror to many. (Graphic memoir. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 17, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-545-85251-7
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Graphix/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 11, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2019
A tighter focus would make this fascinating life story even more intriguing.
In this graphic memoir by sports journalist Shah, a ninth grader pursues his passion in the face of familial expectations pushing him toward a medical career, while also navigating the perils of high school social life.
It’s 1995, and Indian American Amar is desperate to meet the Chicago Bulls—Michael Jordan, in particular—when they stop by his Orlando, Florida, school. A lucky break leads him to his first sports interview, with Phil Jackson, and his tenacity takes him further, leading to multiple conversations with Shaquille O’Neal. But Amar’s luck in journalism doesn’t spill over to his relationship with his crush, blond Kasey Page (“like a mixture of Cameron Diaz, Tinkerbell, and heaven”), or his efforts to remain close with best friends Rohit and Cherian, who start spending more time with other classmates. The work relies on captions as much as plot developments to propel the story. It also follows a broad cast of characters—close and former friends, antagonists, supportive adults, and famous athletes—who appear in multiple storylines. The story accurately depicts the complexities of life as a young teen, though overlapping life challenges pull it in multiple directions, leaving some threads underexplored and hastily wrapped up. Doucet illustrates the characters using loose, disjointed outlines that give the artwork a sense of movement, and the colorful backgrounds use patterns and action lines to indicate a wide array of emotions.
A tighter focus would make this fascinating life story even more intriguing. (author’s note, photographs) (Graphic memoir. 9-12)Pub Date: Aug. 5, 2025
ISBN: 9781546110514
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Graphix/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: June 13, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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