Though somewhat didactic, this is an entertaining story stuffed with important lessons.
Middle schoolers Sam and TJ discover queer history on Staten Island.
Sam, who has pale skin and dirty-blond hair, and their best friend TJ, who has dark hair and tan skin, have to research a historical Staten Island figure for their boring, supertraditional history teacher. If they get the highest grade in the class, their report will be entered in a boroughwide contest to design a new statue for Staten Island Borough Hall. With help from some adult queer mentors, Sam discovers Alice Austen, a famous local photographer, lesbian, and, most exciting of all, former resident of Sam’s exact apartment. Even when another project gets the highest grade, Sam, TJ, and their queer family are not ready to give up on Alice Austen. The main character and their best friend are both nonbinary, and though it is mentioned that some people don’t understand this, they are supported by the important people in their lives. In fact, when talking to their older lesbian neighbor, they are shocked to learn how difficult life was for queer people in the past. Featuring relatable characters and an accessible plot, this book makes it clear that queer people have always existed and that they can be anywhere and any age. It also highlights the importance of queer history and intergenerational communication, though at times the writing can be clunky and overly earnest instead of letting the characters’ experiences speak for themselves.
Though somewhat didactic, this is an entertaining story stuffed with important lessons. (author’s note, photographs by Alice Austen) (Realistic fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: April 5, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-338-73389-1
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 24, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2022
The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often...
A successful juvenile by the beloved New Yorker writer portrays a farm episode with an imaginative twist that makes a poignant, humorous story of a pig, a spider and a little girl.
Young Fern Arable pleads for the life of runt piglet Wilbur and gets her father to sell him to a neighbor, Mr. Zuckerman. Daily, Fern visits the Zuckermans to sit and muse with Wilbur and with the clever pen spider Charlotte, who befriends him when he is lonely and downcast. At the news of Wilbur's forthcoming slaughter, campaigning Charlotte, to the astonishment of people for miles around, spins words in her web. "Some Pig" comes first. Then "Terrific"—then "Radiant". The last word, when Wilbur is about to win a show prize and Charlotte is about to die from building her egg sac, is "Humble". And as the wonderful Charlotte does die, the sadness is tempered by the promise of more spiders next spring.
The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often informative as amusing, and the whole tenor of appealing wit and pathos will make fine entertainment for reading aloud, too.Pub Date: Oct. 15, 1952
ISBN: 978-0-06-026385-0
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1952
PERSPECTIVES
SEEN & HEARD
Poignant and heartwarming.
Zephyrina the cat, the “Robin Hood of felines,” rescues discarded toys so they can have new lives.
Zephyrina brings toys back to the apartment she shares with Elizaveta and her daughter, Dasha, refugees from war-torn Ukraine. Dasha reconditions Zephyrina’s rescues and sets them outside for three days, just in case they have owners who want to reclaim them. Afterward, they join the other toys in the parlor—the Second Chances Home for the Tossed and Treasured. Dasha and Elizaveta don’t know that the toys are sentient. At midnight they abandon their rigid daytime postures to cavort and play, overseen by their leader, Pocket, a tiny mascot bear made to comfort soldiers during World War I. One night, Zephyrina brings back a dirty old bear, and Pocket is astounded. The new arrival, Berwon, might come from a lost shipment of the first-ever stuffed bears, sent from Germany to the U.S. in 1903—and if so, he’s worth a fortune. In the ensuing antics, the unpleasant villain Picky Vicky covets Berwon, and a kind museum curator does, too, but for different reasons. Applegate’s writing is exquisitely nuanced; she couches profound themes in accessible language that depicts relatable situations. Gentle, generous Elizaveta and Dasha poignantly underscore the human impact of wars. Santoso’s enchanting, delicate, black-and-white illustrations bring the timeless feeling of a classic to this hopeful, humanizing story of the distressed looking out for each other.
Poignant and heartwarming. (author’s note) (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 9, 2025
ISBN: 9781250904362
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: July 3, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025
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