A short, sweet tale of expanding horizons, nurturing friendships, and pursuing passions.
A quiet tween finds her voice during a weeklong magazine internship in Manhattan.
Seventh grader Elena Martinez and her best friend, Summer, love Spread Your Wings magazine. They both apply to be Flyers—the four readers selected annually to spend a summer week contributing to the September back-to-school issue. When only Elena, an aspiring therapist and songwriter, is chosen, she worries the experience will fracture her lifelong friendship with Summer, who has begun spending more time with a cross-country teammate and seems to resent being Elena’s only friend. Considering that socially anxious Elena can barely speak aloud in class, she’s especially intimidated about meeting Cailin Carter, a Flyer who is an elite Texas cheerleader, reality television star, and social media presence. After arriving in New York City, Elena supports fashion-loving Flyer Whitney Richards as she’s having a panic attack at the train station. The final Flyer, Harlow Yoshida, is a budding investigative journalist eager to sink her teeth into a good story. The author captures the awkwardness and excitement of four tween girls getting to know one another, learning about publishing, and having adventures in the city. The story also thoughtfully explores anxiety, self-esteem, and influencer culture. Elena is Puerto Rican, Whitney is cued as Black, Harlow is Japanese American, and Summer and Cailin read as White; race does not play a role in the story.
A short, sweet tale of expanding horizons, nurturing friendships, and pursuing passions. (author's note) (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: June 1, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5344-7672-1
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: April 13, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2021
A real gem.
A 10-year old girl learns to adjust to a strange town, makes some fascinating friends, and fills the empty space in her heart thanks to a big old stray dog in this lyrical, moving, and enchanting book by a fresh new voice.
India Opal’s mama left when she was only three, and her father, “the preacher,” is absorbed in his own loss and in the work of his new ministry at the Open-Arms Baptist Church of Naomi [Florida]. Enter Winn-Dixie, a dog who “looked like a big piece of old brown carpet that had been left out in the rain.” But, this dog had a grin “so big that it made him sneeze.” And, as Opal says, “It’s hard not to immediately fall in love with a dog who has a good sense of humor.” Because of Winn-Dixie, Opal meets Miss Franny Block, an elderly lady whose papa built her a library of her own when she was just a little girl and she’s been the librarian ever since. Then, there’s nearly blind Gloria Dump, who hangs the empty bottle wreckage of her past from the mistake tree in her back yard. And, Otis, oh yes, Otis, whose music charms the gerbils, rabbits, snakes and lizards he’s let out of their cages in the pet store. Brush strokes of magical realism elevate this beyond a simple story of friendship to a well-crafted tale of community and fellowship, of sweetness, sorrow and hope. And, it’s funny, too.
A real gem. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: March 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-7636-0776-2
Page Count: 182
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2000
SEEN & HEARD
Entrancing and uplifting.
A small dog, the elderly woman who owns him, and a homeless girl come together to create a tale of serendipity.
Piper, almost 12, her parents, and her younger brother are at the bottom of a long slide toward homelessness. Finally in a family shelter, Piper finds that her newfound safety gives her the opportunity to reach out to someone who needs help even more. Jewel, mentally ill, lives in the park with her dog, Baby. Unwilling to leave her pet, and forbidden to enter the shelter with him, she struggles with the winter weather. Ree, also homeless and with a large dog, helps when she can, but after Jewel gets sick and is hospitalized, Baby’s taken to the animal shelter, and Ree can’t manage the complex issues alone. It’s Piper, using her best investigative skills, who figures out Jewel’s backstory. Still, she needs all the help of the shelter Firefly Girls troop that she joins to achieve her accomplishment: to raise enough money to provide Jewel and Baby with a secure, hopeful future and, maybe, with their kindness, to inspire a happier story for Ree. Told in the authentic alternating voices of loving child and loyal dog, this tale could easily slump into a syrupy melodrama, but Pyron lets her well-drawn characters earn their believable happy ending, step by challenging step, by reaching out and working together. Piper, her family, and Jewel present white; Pyron uses hair and naming convention, respectively, to cue Ree as black and Piper’s friend Gabriela as Latinx.
Entrancing and uplifting. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Aug. 13, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-06-283922-0
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: April 9, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2019
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