A less-strident Mandy would be welcome if she makes any further appearances.
Second-grader Mandy (her mother thinks it’s “Amanda”) has strong opinions about everything, including her name.
Whether it’s her love of the color periwinkle or her disdain for the color pink, Mandy holds firm to her opinions. She tries to love her baby twins, Samantha and Cody, but they are always “damp,” and she barely tolerates her little brother Timmy. As the oldest child, she feels she can be the boss of the family. She loves Rainbow Sparkle, a cartoon cat with a TV show of her own, and she wants to be George Washington in her class’s Presidential Pageant. She really does not like her new nickname, “Polka Dot,” which is what her classmate Dennis calls her after her polka-dot underwear showed through the awful white pants her mother forced her to wear. Eventually, and a little too neatly, all is resolved: Mandy finally appreciates her roles in the class pageant, with her former nemesis, Natalie, and in her very own family. Readers of the Clementine series will find similarities, especially the first-person narration that gives readers a front-row seat into Mandy’s brain. However, it’s hard to find much to like in this whiny 8-year-old until the very end.
A less-strident Mandy would be welcome if she makes any further appearances. (Fiction. 6-9)Pub Date: Nov. 12, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4424-8393-4
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: Sept. 17, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A deceptively simple, warmhearted tale, particularly apt for chapter-book readers with similar experiences or an interest in...
When feisty great-aunt Britannia falls and hurts herself for the fourth time in two years, 8-year-old Jenna and her mom, a nurse, invite “Tannie” to come and live with them.
But the strong-willed, widowed Tannie, an avid birder who once could fly an airplane and ride a motorcycle, isn’t quite ready to give up her Mississippi farm and move in with her beloved relatives in Virginia. Eventually Tannie relents. Although Jenna appreciates having her great-aunt’s inspiring spirit nearby, soon Tannie’s needs cut into the maternal attentiveness Jenna has come to expect. Learning to accept change and to ask for help become challenges for all of the characters, as transitioning into an intergenerational threesome is presented as an ongoing process. Amateau’s experiences with caregiving and her work in the world of aging and disability services inform this mildly generic, timeless story. Refreshing aspects include an adventurous older female character striving to remain vital and the mutually respectful relationship between Jenna and her mother, who is the primary parent after divorce.
A deceptively simple, warmhearted tale, particularly apt for chapter-book readers with similar experiences or an interest in multigenerational stories. (Fiction. 7-9)Pub Date: June 9, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-7636-3010-2
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Feb. 22, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
No spam, no robocalls, no fundraising appeals…those were the days. Maybe it’s time for a crokinole comeback, too.
Riding the cutting edge of change continues to bring mixed blessings for the Tweedles, a turn of the century—the 20th century—clan.
This time it’s one of those newfangled “telephones,” installed after neighbor Gladys Hamm rushes in boasting “We are online!” Mama Tweedle is beguiled by the idea of just picking up an earpiece to order groceries, daughter Franny is outright jubilant, son Frankie is dismissive since it’s not like a car (see: The Tweedles Go Electric, 2014), and Papa frets about (wait for it) privacy issues. But soon there’s a new force in the household, with a loud Drriiing! Drriiing! that cuts off conversations, interrupts family games of crokinole, and keeps Franny up long past bedtime. Finally Franny disconnects the bells, but that prevents Gladys from calling to report seeing smoke (a false alarm, as it turns out, but still). By the end, the device has gone, in Mama’s view, from “extreme” to “our lifeline.” Lafrance’s neatly drawn scenes of figures sporting antique dress and hairstyles add further drollery to the thoroughly topical plotline. Readers will laugh at the juxtaposition, though they’re likely to think the Tweedles’ eventual ability to find cake and crokinole more compelling than the phone’s ringing a touch optimistic then as well as now.
No spam, no robocalls, no fundraising appeals…those were the days. Maybe it’s time for a crokinole comeback, too. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: May 12, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-55498-353-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Groundwood
Review Posted Online: Feb. 22, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2015
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