A beautifully realized book that reminds readers that there’s more than one rhythm to dance to.
In this latest offering from award winner Méndez, a crisis leads a girl to wrestle with questions of selfhood: “Without dance, I wasn’t sure who I was.”
Florencia del Lago, whose parents are from Argentina, is cast as the first-ever Latina Clara—and, at 11, the youngest one, too—in the Utah Valley Junior Ballet ensemble’s performance of The Nutcracker. With the starring role comes tremendous pressure from Madame Sophie, her strict ballet instructor. Flor’s grades suffer, she constantly questions her abilities and appearance, and her mother’s own unfulfilled ballerina dreams weigh on her. On the night of the first performance, Flor has a panic attack, which leads to public humiliation and a terrible fight between Mamá and Madame Sophie. Flor loses her spot in the studio, and her best friend, Selena, assumes the role of Clara. Flor is forced to evaluate herself, her love of dance, and the true definition of friendship. Flor’s journey is full of self-reflection, but her ample progress and insights propel the story and balance the introspective moments. That Flor is able to move past people and activities that don’t serve her, while getting therapy and trying to find new things to make her happy, will serve as inspiration to anyone who feels defined by something they used to do.
A beautifully realized book that reminds readers that there’s more than one rhythm to dance to. (author’s note, glossary) (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: April 22, 2025
ISBN: 9781643796437
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Tu Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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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