Webb's (Amber, 2007, etc.) experience as a fourth-grade teacher helps him create a sweet if predictable story about the...
Fed up with the teasing that he and his classmates endure from bullies and mean girls every day, 11-year-old Barkley Smeelly devises an elaborate plan to convince everyone that Benjamin Hoagie Middle School would be a happier place if they could follow just one rule.
With even his teachers mistaking his last name for "Smelly," Barkley Smeelly is no stranger to being teased. After his first day of middle school ends with his best friend, Peter, getting a pudding cup smashed on his head and his mom telling him she's hired "The Nanny from Hell" to watch him in the afternoon because he's too young to be home alone, Barkley decides he needs to do something to gain more respect. Taking advice from a self-help book he finds in his dad's study, Barkley creates a set of rules that he wants everyone in his life to follow, eventually focusing on just one: "Treat people the way you would like to be treated." Barkley plans to unveil his rule by winning enough "Hoagie Dollars" for good behavior to become principal for a day. He organizes an assembly complete with a celebrity speaker, and everyone agrees to be kinder to one another. Although the plot feels thin at times, Barkley's self-deprecating charm moves the story along. The frustrations he feels as a child—old enough to recognize the things in his life he would like to change but too young to know what to do about them—are realistic and relatable. He and Peter make a touching team of underdogs as they trade inexpert advice about how to talk to the prettiest girl in their class. However, jokes about Peter's weight and flatulence feel out of place given the novel's message of acceptance. Barkley's success at the end is also a little too neatly won to feel truly triumphant.
Webb's (Amber, 2007, etc.) experience as a fourth-grade teacher helps him create a sweet if predictable story about the importance of a rule that kids—and adults—could be reminded of more often. (Fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Aug. 25, 2011
ISBN: 978-1457506076
Page Count: 143
Publisher: Dog Ear Publishing
Review Posted Online: Jan. 5, 2012
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The inevitable go-to for Percy’s legions of fans who want the stories behind his stories.
Percy Jackson takes a break from adventuring to serve up the Greek gods like flapjacks at a church breakfast.
Percy is on form as he debriefs readers concerning Chaos, Gaea, Ouranos and Pontus, Dionysus, Ariadne and Persephone, all in his dude’s patter: “He’d forgotten how beautiful Gaea could be when she wasn’t all yelling up in his face.” Here they are, all 12 Olympians, plus many various offspring and associates: the gold standard of dysfunctional families, whom Percy plays like a lute, sometimes lyrically, sometimes with a more sardonic air. Percy’s gift, which is no great secret, is to breathe new life into the gods. Closest attention is paid to the Olympians, but Riordan has a sure touch when it comes to fitting much into a small space—as does Rocco’s artwork, which smokes and writhes on the page as if hit by lightning—so readers will also meet Makaria, “goddess of blessed peaceful deaths,” and the Theban Teiresias, who accidentally sees Athena bathing. She blinds him but also gives him the ability to understand the language of birds. The atmosphere crackles and then dissolves, again and again: “He could even send the Furies after living people if they committed a truly horrific crime—like killing a family member, desecrating a temple, or singing Journey songs on karaoke night.”
The inevitable go-to for Percy’s legions of fans who want the stories behind his stories. (Mythology. 10-14)Pub Date: Aug. 19, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4231-8364-8
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Review Posted Online: June 28, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2014
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Tales that “lay out your options for painful and interesting ways to die.” And to live.
In a similarly hefty companion to Percy Jackson’s Greek Gods (2014), the most voluble of Poseidon’s many sons dishes on a dozen more ancient relatives and fellow demigods.
Riordan averts his young yarn spinner’s eyes from the sex but not the stupidity, violence, malice, or bad choices that drive so many of the old tales. He leavens full, refreshingly tart accounts of the ups and downs of such higher-profile heroes as Theseus, Orpheus, Hercules, and Jason with the lesser-known but often equally awesome exploits of such butt-kicking ladies as Atalanta, Otrera (the first Amazon), and lion-wrestling Cyrene. In thought-provoking contrast, Psyche comes off as no less heroic, even though her story is less about general slaughter than the tough “Iron Housewives quests” Aphrodite forces her to undertake to rescue her beloved Eros. Furthermore, along with snarky chapter heads (“Phaethon Fails Driver’s Ed”), the contemporary labor includes references to Jay-Z, Apple Maps, god-to-god texting, and the like—not to mention the way the narrator makes fun of hard-to-pronounce names and points up such character flaws as ADHD (Theseus) and anger management issues (Hercules). The breezy treatment effectively blows off at least some of the dust obscuring the timeless themes in each hero’s career. In Rocco’s melodramatically murky illustrations, men and women alike display rippling thews and plenty of skin as they battle ravening monsters.
Tales that “lay out your options for painful and interesting ways to die.” And to live. (maps, index) (Mythology. 10-14)Pub Date: Aug. 18, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4231-8365-5
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Review Posted Online: July 21, 2015
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