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WATCH OUT, HOLLYWOOD!

Name: WATCH OUT, HOLLYWOOD!
Author: Maria T. Lennon
ISBN: 978-0-06-212693-1

MORE CONFESSIONS OF A SO-CALLED MIDDLE CHILD

From the Confessions of a So-called Middle Child series , Vol. 2

by Maria T. Lennon ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 26, 2014

Lennon’s over-the-top tale and larger-than-life characters and situations aren’t exactly credible, but readers who like...

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A 12-year-old girl with big dreams struggles to reconcile her towering ambition with the demands of just being a good person.

Charlie C. Cooper, a smart, strong-minded fashionista and computer whiz, needs to figure out how to win a starring role in a new television series about a girls’ gymnastics team while at the same time getting her on-again, off-again friend, Marta Urloff, a spot on the school team for the Junior Olympics. Recent television coverage has billed Charlie an “Ex-bully, Turned Selfless Do-gooder,” but real life is more complicated than that for Lennon’s initially unlikable protagonist. While it is true that Marta’s true talent and calling is gymnastics and the Junior Olympics serves her long-term interests best, she also has an opportunity to audition for the same television role as Charlie. To prevent this from happening, Charlie, in an unconvincing scene, lies. Charlie’s falsehood is discovered, poisoning her popularity, disappointing her family and turning off the boy of her dreams. How Charlie takes her lumps and works to make everything right is the crux of this amusing tale, which gains momentum and readers’ sympathies as the story progresses.

Lennon’s over-the-top tale and larger-than-life characters and situations aren’t exactly credible, but readers who like their characters big and brash will suspend their disbelief and enjoy. (Fiction. 7-11)

Pub Date: Aug. 26, 2014

ISBN: 978-0-06-212693-1

Page Count: 240

Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: June 24, 2014

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2014

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

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LITTLE DAYMOND LEARNS TO EARN

by Daymond John ; illustrated by Nicole Miles ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 21, 2023

It’s hard to argue with success, but guides that actually do the math will be more useful to budding capitalists.

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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

Categories:

CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

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HORRIBLE HARRY SAYS GOODBYE

From the Horrible Harry series , Vol. 37

by Suzy Kline ; illustrated by Amy Wummer ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 27, 2018

A fitting farewell, still funny, acute, and positive in its view of human nature even in its 37th episode.

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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)