On the cusp of turning 13, an African-American youngster discovers a passion for an unusual sport and confronts a major change in his family.
T’Shawn, a pretty good swimmer, discovers at a local pool that he likes diving off the diving board—and that there is a club where he can learn more. It’s very expensive, though. His mother works hard, but there are huge bills left over from his father’s illness before he died. Then his mother announces that his older brother, Lamont, is about to be released from prison and will be living with them. The brothers’ relationship, once close, suffered due to Lamont’s gang involvement, and his return is difficult. Although T’Shawn receives assistance that allows him to join the diving club, it is watching his brother for signs he might be returning to his old life that consumes him—and he even joins a community movement to get Lamont removed from the neighborhood. In this middle-grade debut, Binns depicts many issues facing urban youth, some with more success than others. Readers follow T’Shawn as he witnesses police brutality, copes with a well-meaning teacher, helps a friend with sickle cell disease, supports another friend grieving the loss of her mother to domestic violence, and more. The cast is multicultural, which adds to the story landscape, as do strong depictions of African-American men.
A solid addition with a multifaceted look at the urban experience. (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: July 31, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-06-256165-7
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: April 25, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2018
Categories: CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S FAMILY
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PROFILES
The Heffley family’s house undergoes a disastrous attempt at home improvement.
When Great Aunt Reba dies, she leaves some money to the family. Greg’s mom calls a family meeting to determine what to do with their share, proposing home improvements and then overruling the family’s cartoonish wish lists and instead pushing for an addition to the kitchen. Before bringing in the construction crew, the Heffleys attempt to do minor maintenance and repairs themselves—during which Greg fails at the work in various slapstick scenes. Once the professionals are brought in, the problems keep getting worse: angry neighbors, terrifying problems in walls, and—most serious—civil permitting issues that put the kibosh on what work’s been done. Left with only enough inheritance to patch and repair the exterior of the house—and with the school’s dismal standardized test scores as a final straw—Greg’s mom steers the family toward moving, opening up house-hunting and house-selling storylines (and devastating loyal Rowley, who doesn’t want to lose his best friend). While Greg’s positive about the move, he’s not completely uncaring about Rowley’s action. (And of course, Greg himself is not as unaffected as he wishes.) The gags include effectively placed callbacks to seemingly incidental events (the “stress lizard” brought in on testing day is particularly funny) and a lampoon of after-school-special–style problem books. Just when it seems that the Heffleys really will move, a new sequence of chaotic trouble and property destruction heralds a return to the status quo. Whew.
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs. (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 8-12)Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3903-3
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Nov. 19, 2019
Categories: GENERAL GRAPHIC NOVELS & COMICS | CHILDREN'S FAMILY
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SEEN & HEARD
The comical longings of little girls who want to be big girls—exercising to the chant of "We must—we must—increase our bust!"—and the wistful longing of Margaret, who talks comfortably to God, for a religion, come together as her anxiety to be normal, which is natural enough in sixth grade.
And if that's what we want to tell kids, this is a fresh, unclinical case in point: Mrs. Blume (Iggie's House, 1969) has an easy way with words and some choice ones when the occasion arises. But there's danger in the preoccupation with the physical signs of puberty—with growing into a Playboy centerfold, the goal here, though the one girl in the class who's on her way rues it; and with menstruating sooner rather than later —calming Margaret, her mother says she was a late one, but the happy ending is the first drop of blood: the effect is to confirm common anxieties instead of allaying them. (And countertrends notwithstanding, much is made of that first bra, that first dab of lipstick.) More promising is Margaret's pursuit of religion: to decide for herself (earlier than her 'liberal' parents intended), she goes to temple with a grandmother, to church with a friend; but neither makes any sense to her—"Twelve is very late to learn." Fortunately, after a disillusioning sectarian dispute, she resumes talking to God…to thank him for that telltale sign of womanhood.
Which raises the last question: of a satirical stance in lieu of a perspective.Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1970
ISBN: 978-1-4814-1397-8
Page Count: 157
Publisher: Bradbury
Review Posted Online: Oct. 15, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1970
Categories: CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S RELIGIOUS FICTION
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PERSPECTIVES
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