Adorable fun for chapter-book newbies looking for a few giggles.
In this series debut, a boy learns that when it comes to friends, quality is more important than quantity.
Warren Reginald Nesbitt is moving and will be starting second grade at a new school. The 7-year-old is lucky he has his pet, Dragon, a plush toy who’s real only to him, to help him adjust. Then his outgoing twin sister, Ellie, dares him to make 100 friends before she does. Shy Warren accepts the challenge: “I’m going to make more new friends than you.” But inside, he thinks, in his endearingly honest first-person narration, “I do not say I might not believe what I just said.” Marshmallow-loving Dragon offers Warren friend-making advice: Give a compliment. “You do not smell like rotten pumpkins,” Warren says to classmate Alison. Making new friends may take a while, but it will be worth it. In Book 2, Weekend with Chewy, Warren takes the class hamster home for two days. In addition to performing general pet care, Warren must write a report and keep Chewy safe from mischievous Dragon’s boundless appetite. How will he find the time to build a secret snack-smuggling ramp with his friend Michael? In both the black-and-white artwork and, notably, the text, Warren, his family, and Alison are white; Michael’s two-mom family is black.
Adorable fun for chapter-book newbies looking for a few giggles. (Fiction. 5-9)Pub Date: Aug. 28, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-425-28844-3
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 13, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2018
Embedded in this heartwarming story of doing the right thing is a deft examination of the pressures of income inequality on...
Continuing from their acclaimed Those Shoes (2007), Boelts and Jones entwine conversations on money, motives, and morality.
This second collaboration between author and illustrator is set within an urban multicultural streetscape, where brown-skinned protagonist Ruben wishes for a bike like his friend Sergio’s. He wishes, but Ruben knows too well the pressure his family feels to prioritize the essentials. While Sergio buys a pack of football cards from Sonny’s Grocery, Ruben must buy the bread his mom wants. A familiar lady drops what Ruben believes to be a $1 bill, but picking it up, to his shock, he discovers $100! Is this Ruben’s chance to get himself the bike of his dreams? In a fateful twist, Ruben loses track of the C-note and is sent into a panic. After finally finding it nestled deep in a backpack pocket, he comes to a sense of moral clarity: “I remember how it was for me when that money that was hers—then mine—was gone.” When he returns the bill to her, the lady offers Ruben her blessing, leaving him with double-dipped emotions, “happy and mixed up, full and empty.” Readers will be pleased that there’s no reward for Ruben’s choice of integrity beyond the priceless love and warmth of a family’s care and pride.
Embedded in this heartwarming story of doing the right thing is a deft examination of the pressures of income inequality on children. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Oct. 4, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-7636-6649-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2016
While the blend of folklore, fantasy and realism is certainly far-fetched, Imani, with her winning personality, is a child...
Imani endures the insults heaped upon her by the other village children, but she never gives up her dreams.
The Masai girl is tiny compared to the other children, but she is full of imagination and perseverance. Luckily, she has a mother who believes in her and tells her stories that will fuel that imagination. Mama tells her about the moon goddess, Olapa, who wins over the sun god. She tells Imani about Anansi, the trickster spider who vanquishes a larger snake. (Troublingly, the fact that Anansi is a West African figure, not of the Masai, goes unaddressed in both text and author’s note.) Inspired, the tiny girl tries to find new ways to achieve her dream: to touch the moon. One day, after crashing to the ground yet again when her leafy wings fail, she is ready to forget her hopes. That night, she witnesses the adumu, the special warriors’ jumping dance. Imani wakes the next morning, determined to jump to the moon. After jumping all day, she reaches the moon, meets Olapa and receives a special present from the goddess, a small moon rock. Now she becomes the storyteller when she relates her adventure to Mama. The watercolor-and-graphite illustrations have been enhanced digitally, and the night scenes of storytelling and fantasy with their glowing stars and moons have a more powerful impact than the daytime scenes, with their blander colors.
While the blend of folklore, fantasy and realism is certainly far-fetched, Imani, with her winning personality, is a child to be admired. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Oct. 14, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-934133-57-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Mackinac Island Press
Review Posted Online: July 28, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2014
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