Gears, robots, color theory, and color blindness mesh nicely in this school-and-friendship tale.
Inventor-in-training Ada Lace discovers that not everyone sees the world as she does.
In this second episode of a STEM-focused chapter-book series, third-grader Ada has a problem. She can’t do the art assignments involving techniques that use color. Worse, the school art teacher is her father. Failing in school is bad enough; disappointing her artistic parents is worse. Unlike her parents and her good friend Nina, Ada’s strengths lie in science and technology. She’s been constructing a robot she’s named George. Kindly Mr. Peebles, an inventor living nearby, offers help and encouragement. Ada’s art problem is a good robotics challenge. Using photoresistors, Ada gives George the capacity to paint paintings for her school assignments and for the audience at an under-12 robotics competition. Meanwhile, seeing that Ada has difficulty distinguishing different color shades, Nina helps her figure out why. Ada and her parents are all relieved to have an explanation for her uncharacteristic school difficulties. Illustrations portray Ada and her family as white, Nina as Southeast Asian, and Mr. Peebles as black. Ada’s self-portrait, an important plot point, looks quite different in Kurilla’s illustration from what’s described in the text, but readers will be drawn in by Ada’s real issues and satisfied by the resolution.
Gears, robots, color theory, and color blindness mesh nicely in this school-and-friendship tale. (afterword) (Fiction. 7-10)Pub Date: Aug. 29, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4814-8602-6
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2017
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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