A hopeful story that encourages compassion.
Waiting to cross the border is no easy task.
A young girl named Noemi and her mother leave Mexico in search of a safer place to live. Arriving at the border, they must wait. They give their names and country of origin to the kind Notebook Keeper, Belinda, a volunteer tasked with keeping track of asylum seekers waiting to plead their cases. Each day, Belinda calls out the names of those who can move forward in the process. The author’s note explains that this is based on a real-life process at the San Ysidro Border Crossing in Tijuana. Noemi and Mamá wait for days, then weeks. Belinda encourages them to stay hopeful and explains that she was picked to become the Notebook Keeper—and how she will select her own replacement when her number is finally called. Taking a cue from Belinda, Noemi decides to stay positive and be kind to those around her. She and her mother are eventually chosen to be the new Notebook Keepers when Belinda’s number comes up. Noemi and Mamá are Mexican and brown-skinned; other asylum seekers at the border represent a variety of ethnicities and brown skin tones. The story is uncomplicated and earnest while explaining a deeply nuanced aspect of attempting to enter the United States as a refugee. Dreamy colored pencil, pastel, gouache, and Photoshop collage illustrations put a human face on the real struggle facing so many refugees today. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A hopeful story that encourages compassion. (sources) (Picture book. 5-10)Pub Date: June 21, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-593-30705-2
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Random House Studio
Review Posted Online: April 26, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
This outing lacks the sophistication of such category standards as Clementine; here’s hoping English amps things up for...
A gentle voice and familiar pitfalls characterize this tale of a boy navigating the risky road to responsibility.
Gavin is new to his neighborhood and Carver Elementary. He likes his new friend, Richard, and has a typically contentious relationship with his older sister, Danielle. When Gavin’s desire to impress Richard sets off a disastrous chain of events, the boy struggles to evade responsibility for his actions. “After all, it isn’t his fault that Danielle’s snow globe got broken. Sure, he shouldn’t have been in her room—but then, she shouldn’t be keeping candy in her room to tempt him. Anybody would be tempted. Anybody!” opines Gavin once he learns the punishment for his crime. While Gavin has a charming Everyboy quality, and his aversion to Aunt Myrtle’s yapping little dog rings true, little about Gavin distinguishes him from other trouble-prone protagonists. He is, regrettably, forgettable. Coretta Scott King Honor winner English (Francie, 1999) is a teacher whose storytelling usually benefits from her day job. Unfortunately, the pizzazz of classroom chaos is largely absent from this series opener.
This outing lacks the sophistication of such category standards as Clementine; here’s hoping English amps things up for subsequent volumes. (Fiction. 6-9)Pub Date: Dec. 17, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-547-97044-8
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 1, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A charming friendship story and great setup for future books.
Curious about the Big Wide World outside his Sasquatch community, Hugo makes a friend who is of it.
Sasquatch Hugo’s bedroom is inside a cave and possesses the charming feature of a small stream running through it that he can sail his little toy boat on. It’s cool, but he yearns to see the Big Wide World. When he asks his smart friend Gigi if a Sasquatch might become a sailor, she says it’s possible but would be difficult—the primary rule of their people is to not be seen by Humans. Then, in everyone’s favorite Hide and Go Sneak class, which is held outside, a Human appears; Hugo laughs at the sight, drawing Human attention in a taboo-breaking mistake. Shortly after, Hugo’s toy boat floats into the cave with a Human toy—soon, it’s facilitating a pen-pal–type relationship that’s derailed when Hugo confesses to being a Sasquatch and Human Boone, a budding cryptozoologist, doesn’t believe him. How Hugo and Boone resolve this misapprehension and become friends in a joint search for the Ogopogo concludes this series opener. Potter keeps the third-person narrative tightly focused on Hugo’s perspective, and the details she uses to flesh out the Sasquatch world are delightfully playful. Sala’s drawings depict a homey Sasquatch cavern community, Boone as a freckled, white boy, and Hugo as a hairily benevolent behemoth.
A charming friendship story and great setup for future books. (final art unseen) (Fantasy. 5-9)Pub Date: April 10, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4197-2859-4
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Dec. 10, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2018
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