An immersive look at resiliency during trying times.
It’s 1935, and on their farm in the Oklahoma panhandle, the Stanton family is suffering amid drought and severe, ongoing dust storms.
Twins Howe and Joanna, formerly close, have drifted apart. Howe dreams of poetry: Inspired by a caring schoolteacher, he wants to build a life far away. But Daddy’s always planned to pass the farm down to his boys—Howe and older brother Lou. Joanna, who’s considered fragile due to her scoliosis, adores farm life, but she’s forbidden to participate in the ways she’d like. When their father leaves for California to find work, the twins take new paths. In alternating first-person points of view, Howe and Joanna narrate their family’s difficult year. Joanna finds her calling in assisting the visiting Red Cross nurses, who are in town to help with a measles epidemic and dust-related health issues. One nurse, who also has scoliosis, provides Joanna with an example of living a useful, vital life as a disabled adult. Howe dives into his writing and is inspired by a man from the government’s Soil Erosion Service who brings hope for the rebirth of their community’s natural landscape. The historical milieu is extremely well drawn, with instances of hardship and ingenuity that will intrigue fans of survival stories. Colman’s dedication to authenticity and rich detail creates a compelling world. Main characters are cued white.
An immersive look at resiliency during trying times. (author’s note) (Historical fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Aug. 19, 2025
ISBN: 9780374392789
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
An emotional, much-needed historical graphic novel.
Sandy and his family, Japanese Canadians, experience hatred and incarceration during World War II.
Sandy Saito loves baseball, and the Vancouver Asahi ballplayers are his heroes. But when they lose in the 1941 semifinals, Sandy’s dad calls it a bad omen. Sure enough, in December 1941, Japan bombs Pearl Harbor in the U.S. The Canadian government begins to ban Japanese people from certain areas, moving them to “dormitories” and setting a curfew. Sandy wants to spend time with his father, but as a doctor, his dad is busy, often sneaking out past curfew to work. One night Papa is taken to “where he [is] needed most,” and the family is forced into an internment camp. Life at the camp isn’t easy, and even with some of the Asahi players playing ball there, it just isn’t the same. Trying to understand and find joy again, Sandy struggles with his new reality and relationship with his father. Based on the true experiences of Japanese Canadians and the Vancouver Asahi team, this graphic novel is a glimpse of how their lives were affected by WWII. The end is a bit abrupt, but it’s still an inspiring and sweet look at how baseball helped them through hardship. The illustrations are all in a sepia tone, giving it an antique look and conveying the emotions and struggles. None of the illustrations of their experiences are overly graphic, making it a good introduction to this upsetting topic for middle-grade readers.
An emotional, much-needed historical graphic novel. (afterword, further resources) (Graphic historical fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Oct. 5, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5253-0334-0
Page Count: 112
Publisher: Kids Can
Review Posted Online: June 28, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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