Heartfelt and accessible.
A hot air balloon race over a small Southern town helps a boy cope with grief.
Eleven-year-old Walter Tipple is celebrating his birthday, but with a sad heart. Tank, the older brother that he hero worships and who is fighting in a war overseas, has died. Then a series of events enlivens his quiet life in the sleepy town of Harmony, Georgia. Posey moves next door with her single mother and three-legged dog. Walter, who is meek and has amblyopia, is targeted by school bullies. Posey has a birthmark on her left cheek, loves to read nonfiction and quote advice on making friends—and she stands up for herself fiercely. Together, they find Jubilation T. Fairweather, a man who literally falls into their lives from his damaged hot air balloon. Nicknamed Banjo, he is determined to find his balloon and win a race, an endeavor that becomes the focus of the story’s action. Walter thinks constantly about his brother but is unable to read Tank’s last letter. The two children balance fear with bravery, and in the concluding balloon ride over Harmony, Walter finds the strength to reconcile his feelings about Tank. Posey owns up to her own fears, and Banjo remains the quirky catalyst. Readers follow Walter’s inner feelings through a narrative that is centered on his thoughts and actions, but the resolution of family grief ultimately feels facile. All characters present as White.
Heartfelt and accessible. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Jan. 12, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-374-31445-3
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Oct. 21, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2020
Words and art combine to create a moving story.
Imagination and drawing help two grieving children in this illustrated novel by the creator of the popular Timmy Failure series and the comic strip “Pearls Before Swine.”
Things are not looking up for Saint (“I wasn’t named for a bearded guy in heaven. I was named for a football team in Louisiana”). Her favorite toy store is demolished, and her beloved diner closes. It’s all part of the gentrification for which she holds her single mother, who works long hours as a real estate agent and frequently breaks her promises, responsible. Saint very much likes reticent neighbor Daniel “Chance” McGibbons, who uses a cane, but first she has to win his friendship after an awkward beginning at his birthday party. When the uncle Chance lives with sells to developers, Saint’s determination to save his home penetrates Chance’s reserve. The kids’ subsequent shenanigans will delight readers. The story is generously illustrated with Pastis’ characteristic black-and-white cartoon line drawings, mostly of the two round-headed kids, whose hair and skin are as white as the page. Longtime neighborhood resident Old Lady Trifaldi helps Saint learn to cope with change by looking at the stars from her roof, “to make time go backward.” Pastis fills this deceptively simple first-person account with humor, puns, turns, and twists—and the final twist gives this friendship tale its surprising depth.
Words and art combine to create a moving story. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Oct. 10, 2023
ISBN: 9781665929622
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2023
Medically, both squicky and hopeful; emotionally, unbelievably squeaky-clean.
A 12-year-old copes with a brain tumor.
Maddie likes potatoes and fake mustaches. Kids at school are nice (except one whom readers will see instantly is a bully); soon they’ll get to perform Shakespeare scenes in a unit they’ve all been looking forward to. But recent dysfunctions in Maddie’s arm and leg mean, stunningly, that she has a brain tumor. She has two surgeries, the first successful, the second taking place after the book’s end, leaving readers hanging. The tumor’s not malignant, but it—or the surgeries—could cause sight loss, personality change, or death. The descriptions of surgery aren’t for the faint of heart. The authors—parents of a real-life Maddie who really had a brain tumor—imbue fictional Maddie’s first-person narration with quirky turns of phrase (“For the love of potatoes!”) and whimsy (she imagines her medical battles as epic fantasy fights and pretends MRI stands for Mustard Rat from Indiana or Mustaches Rock Importantly), but they also portray her as a model sick kid. She’s frightened but never acts out, snaps, or resists. Her most frequent commentary about the tumor, having her skull opened, and the possibility of death is “Boo” or “Super boo.” She even shoulders the bully’s redemption. Maddie and most characters are white; one cringe-inducing hallucinatory surgery dream involves “chanting island natives” and a “witch doctor lady.”
Medically, both squicky and hopeful; emotionally, unbelievably squeaky-clean. (authors’ note, discussion questions) (Fiction. 9-11)Pub Date: Oct. 3, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-62972-330-3
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Shadow Mountain
Review Posted Online: Aug. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2017
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