by Anne Fine & illustrated by Kate Aldous ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 12, 2007
When a budding writer covets her neighbor’s diary, creative mayhem results. Iola has more ideas than she has time to write them down; Jennifer is something of a tabula rasa—which is why it’s just so unfair that Jennifer has a rainbow-colored diary with “a whole glossy blank page” for every day of the year. And when Iola spots it on the ground after school and takes it home, it’s only to be expected that she’ll write in it. The tale is told in Iola’s voice, every self-interested rationalization laid bare to the reader: “It was her own fault for getting back so late . . . I wrote in the diary because no one else was using it.” The juxtaposition between Jennifer’s mind-numbingly pedestrian diary entries and Iola’s imaginative pyrotechnics is nothing short of hilarious, if not a bit nice. The resolution is satisfyingly wicked, a celebration of the triumph of imagination, if not respect for private property. In literature, as in life, it’s something of a relief not to be nice every once in a while, and nobody walks this line better than Fine. (Fiction. 8-11)
Pub Date: April 12, 2007
ISBN: 0-374-33673-3
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2007
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by Julia Alvarez ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2001
Simple, bella, un regalo permenente: simple and beautiful, a gift that will stay.
Renowned Latin American writer Alvarez has created another story about cultural identity, but this time the primary character is 11-year-old Miguel Guzmán.
When Tía Lola arrives to help the family, Miguel and his hermana, Juanita, have just moved from New York City to Vermont with their recently divorced mother. The last thing Miguel wants, as he's trying to fit into a predominantly white community, is a flamboyant aunt who doesn't speak a word of English. Tía Lola, however, knows a language that defies words; she quickly charms and befriends all the neighbors. She can also cook exotic food, dance (anywhere, anytime), plan fun parties, and tell enchanting stories. Eventually, Tía Lola and the children swap English and Spanish ejercicios, but the true lesson is "mutual understanding." Peppered with Spanish words and phrases, Alvarez makes the reader as much a part of the "language" lessons as the characters. This story seamlessly weaves two culturaswhile letting each remain intact, just as Miguel is learning to do with his own life. Like all good stories, this one incorporates a lesson just subtle enough that readers will forget they're being taught, but in the end will understand themselves, and others, a little better, regardless of la lengua nativa—the mother tongue.
Simple, bella, un regalo permenente: simple and beautiful, a gift that will stay. (Fiction. 9-11)Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-375-80215-0
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
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by Megan McDonald & illustrated by Peter Reynolds ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 1, 2002
McDonald’s irrepressible third-grader (Judy Moody Gets Famous, 2001, etc.) takes a few false steps before hitting full stride. This time, not only has her genius little brother Stink submitted a competing entry in the Crazy Strips Band-Aid design contest, but in the wake of her science teacher’s heads-up about rainforest destruction and endangered animals, she sees every member of her family using rainforest products. It’s all more than enough to put her in a Mood, which gets her in trouble at home for letting Stink’s pet toad, Toady, go free, and at school for surreptitiously collecting all the pencils (made from rainforest cedar) in class. And to top it off, Stink’s Crazy Strips entry wins a prize, while she gets . . . a certificate. Chronicled amusingly in Reynolds’s frequent ink-and-tea drawings, Judy goes from pillar to post—but she justifies the pencil caper convincingly enough to spark a bottle drive that nets her and her classmates not only a hundred seedling trees for Costa Rica, but the coveted school Giraffe Award (given to those who stick their necks out), along with T-shirts and ice cream coupons. Judy’s growing corps of fans will crow “Rare!” right along with her. (Fiction. 8-10)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-7636-1446-7
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2002
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by Megan McDonald ; illustrated by Scott Nash
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by Megan McDonald ; illustrated by Peter H. Reynolds
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