Heartfelt if not groundbreaking.
An 11-year-old boy feels as though everything around him—his best friend, his parents, his world—is changing. And it sucks.
Henry and Max have been best friends since kindergarten, but lately, things have been different. As Max pursues his passion for chess, Henry finds himself alone or, even worse, the butt of Max’s jokes. Henry’s family isn’t much help. Mom is traveling a lot with her new job, and Dad, when he’s not too busy with Henry’s little brother, Sam, can’t (or won’t) see the difference between cool Chad Baker All-Stars and…Dollar Shack Chad Fakers. Can Poppy, Henry’s paternal grandfather, and Rupert, Poppy’s dog, help save Henry’s summer from the “gravitational force of nothingness”? When things go wrong, is it because Henry is a dingus? Larsen’s first middle-grade novel is a familiar coming-of-age story with a bit of an identity crisis, awkwardly straddling the school year and the summer. Unfortunately, Henry doesn’t have particularly well-developed interests or qualities, which is part of his problem but which also may be a problem for readers. He and the majority of characters are probably white, with the exception of minor characters Youssef and possibly Jamal. Still, Henry’s family—a single-income, apartment-dwelling family with a stay-at-home dad—is one not commonly seen in children’s literature, and Larsen does offer some true moments of humor and angst.
Heartfelt if not groundbreaking. (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: May 2, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-77138-661-6
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Kids Can
Review Posted Online: Jan. 31, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
Oozing with fun.
The new kid in town finds himself caught up in a slime-selling battle.
Twelve-year-old Alex Manalo is passionate about two things: slime and business. So when he and his dad (his mother has died) move from Silicon Valley to Sacramento to take over his grandparents’ struggling Filipino market, he is excited that they’ll have their own business. Being the new kid isn’t easy, and while Alex isn’t sporty or tall like the popular kids at his old school, he soon discovers that his new middle school is big on slime. Alex makes all kinds of slime with different ingredients, textures, and smells, garnering the attention of his classmates. A new friend convinces him to sell his slime, but that spurs a slime war with the girl who holds the slime monopoly at school. It isn’t going to be easy, especially when his dad thinks slime is a waste of time and that Alex should be playing soccer. With his hands in many different activities, Alex fights to win sticky battles with his family, new friends, and himself. Respicio has written an exciting, fast-paced story of friendship, family, and community. Throughout the book, Alex often struggles to make his opinions heard, but he eventually finds his voice and understands what it really means to be a winner. Alex and his family are Filipino; there is diversity in the supporting cast. The book includes different slime recipes.
Oozing with fun. (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 14, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-30267-5
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Wendy Lamb/Random
Review Posted Online: July 7, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2021
Imaginative, fast-paced, and fun.
Character Indira Story lives in the fictional town of Origin and aspires to a plot of her own.
She works hard to make her dream come true: to travel to the city of Fable and attend Protagonist Preparatory, a school where famous characters such as Alice (from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland), Fitzwilliam Darcy, and Romeo Montague train aspirants to become successful characters in actual stories. Ultimately, succeeding at Protagonist Preparatory would result in Indira’s being chosen by an Author in the Real World for their novel. Indira is determined to become a protagonist so that she can find her brother, David, a laborer in the town of Quiver, where he mines story nuggets. However, Indira fails her audition and begins to train as a side character. To make matters worse, her best efforts at school are sabotaged, and Fable itself is threatened. The question arises: Can a side character become a hero? Reintgen’s middle-grade debut is at once a fantastic adventure and a tribute to famous and popular literature. The plot feels rushed at times, but witty references—to literary characters and elements of the act of reading itself, like dog ears (envisioned as one-eared dogs who steal watches from anthropomorphic bookmarks)—make this novel enjoyable and laugh-out-loud funny. There is nothing intrinsically Indian about brown-skinned Indira (as her name suggests but as her equally brown-skinned brother’s does not), but her-far-from positive experiences remind readers of the importance of working hard at their own stories.
Imaginative, fast-paced, and fun. (Fantasy. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 17, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-525-64668-6
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2019
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