This endearing story about true friendship should appeal equally to boys and girls.
Two 8-year-olds with opposite temperaments and personalities make friends.
Quinny, who has a big, irrepressible personality, moves from New York City to the small town of Whisper Valley with her family: her working mother, stay-at-home dad (enlighteningly rendered without comment) and two younger sisters. They move in next door to the quiet, scientifically minded, bookish Hopper, who is bullied by his two older, soccer-playing twin brothers. Late in the book, a more-assertive Hopper hits one of his brothers. His mother rebukes him, remonstrating that “we don’t punch people in this family.” Readers will cheer at Hopper’s funny, dead-on response: “Sure we do. Where have you been?” There’s not a lot of plot in this lightly amusing slice-of-summer novel—Quinny and Hopper make friends, catch and return a chicken to its rightful owner, have a fight, start third grade and make up—but the book is engrossing, and the likable duo change and grow in believable ways. Quinny and Hopper, who take turns narrating, have distinct, well-differentiated voices, and Schanen makes good use of her individuated secondary characters as well. Swearingen’s black-and-white drawings both capture the spirit of the characters and enhance the narrative.
This endearing story about true friendship should appeal equally to boys and girls. (Fiction. 7-10)Pub Date: June 10, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4231-7829-3
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Review Posted Online: April 29, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
Quiet humor with dashes of goofiness may offset its problems, but Carson’s tale will still work better as a read-aloud than...
Being the “new kid” in the middle of a school year means all sorts of new experiences for 8-year-old Carson Blum.
When his tax-lawyer father takes a new position in El Cerrito, Calif., Carson packs up his stuffed mammal, Moose, and his ditzy Labrador retriever, Genevieve, and waves a reluctant goodbye to his grandparents, his two best friends and his small private school in Pasadena. Public school is quite different, but his teacher, Mr. Lipman, and Carson’s new classmates make him feel welcome. Carson’s just not sure he’ll have a new friend by his birthday to invite horseback riding. He’s also not sure what to make of his classmate Weston Walker, who gets in trouble a lot and seems to tell a lot of whoppers. Carson likes Nancy, who helps him in computer class. He’s also excited to help Patrick take care of Mr. Nibblenose, the class rat. In her newest, Newbery Honor author Jukes (Like Jake and Me, 1984) depicts a warmly affectionate relationship between Carson and his adoptive father. They’re best friends and have in-jokes and no disagreements. Carson’s emotional life is expertly drawn, and readers who’ve found themselves in approximations of his situation will easily identify. However, the length, abundance of complex sentences and slowish pacing make this problematic for early-elementary children, who are most likely to be interested in a novel starring an 8-year-old.
Quiet humor with dashes of goofiness may offset its problems, but Carson’s tale will still work better as a read-aloud than as an independent read. (Fiction. 7-10)Pub Date: Dec. 13, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-375-85879-6
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 6, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2011
Stolen magical artifacts! Kidnapped wizards! Assassinated queens! Earthquakes!
Two months after saving the magical kingdom Marnoch Mor in Dark Isle (2008), Morag and her friends must save it all over again. Marnoch Mor, a secret kingdom in western Scotland, has been a safe haven for magical folk for hundreds of years. Now Morag and her friends (the dragon chief constable Shona, the prissy dodo Bertie, the rat Aldiss and Henry, the talking medallion) have discovered a terrible new danger. A disused magical train starts them on their adventure (good thing they have a jar of Instant Driver—“just add water”), Aldiss warmly clad in "a neon-pink bobble hat." Though the safety of the entire magical world is at stake, Morag has more mundane concerns to confront as well: Her evil, positively Dursleyesque foster parents are still seeking her, and now that she's left Marnoch Mor, she's in constant danger. The set dressing here almost seems to come from a simpler time in children's fantasy: "tiny star-shaped elves" holding "little measuring tapes," a weepy dodo loudly blowing his beak with "a large red and white polka-dotted handkerchief." Lovers of wisecracking fairies and broody vampires will find this twee, but it has its own silly charm. (Fantasy. 8-10)
Pub Date: Nov. 8, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-385-73631-2
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
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