Quietly and emotionally intelligent, this tale satisfies.
An ant farm adopted as a summer project becomes a means of healing.
Harvard and little brother Roger Corson’s pediatrician father hasn’t been the same since the mistake that killed a baby in his care five months ago. Hoping to find his center again, Dad decides to take the boys to his childhood home, the rural, inland Maine town of Kettle Hole, for the summer. They’re renting the home of one of Dad’s oldest friends, Mr. Knowles, who’s struggling to pay his deceased wife’s medical bills and has moved with his daughter, Neveah, into their barn. Ten-year-old Harvard quickly befriends aspiring poet Nevaeh, also 10, who writes poems and has asthma. When the mail-order ants intended for the ant farm Dad builds arrive dead—a fact Harvard is desperate to conceal from Dad—Nevaeh helps Harvard populate it with the carpenter ants somehow only they see marching through the house. As the summer progresses, Harvard learns about ants and tries to help his father heal. Harvard’s sensitive narration grounds readers as they navigate difficult emotional terrain, the authentically rendered setting providing a gently evocative backdrop. Culley neatly explores hard topics such as parental depression and financial precarity within a plot ever so slightly tinged with fantasy. Harvard and Roger are biracial; their mother is of Dominican heritage and their father’s White, like the Knowleses and most other residents of Kettle Hole.
Quietly and emotionally intelligent, this tale satisfies. (Fiction. 8-10)Pub Date: May 10, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-593-17577-4
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2022
Move over Ramona Quimby, Portland has another neighbor you have to meet!
Ryan Hart is navigating the fourth grade and all its challenges with determination.
Her mom named her Ryan because it means “king,” and she wanted Ryan to feel powerful every time she heard her name; Ryan knows it means she is a leader. So when changes occur or disaster strikes, budding chef Ryan does her best to find the positive and “make sunshine.” When her dad is laid off from the post office, the family must make adjustments that include moving into a smaller house, selling their car, and changing how they shop for groceries. But Ryan gets to stay at Vernon Elementary, and her mom still finds a way to get her the ingredients she needs to practice new recipes. Her older brother, Ray, can be bossy, but he finds little ways to support her, especially when she is down—as does the whole family. Each episodic chapter confronts Ryan with a situation; intermittently funny, frustrating, and touching, they should be familiar and accessible to readers, as when Ryan fumbles her Easter speech despite careful practice. Ryan, her family, and friends are Black, and Watson continues to bring visibility to both Portland, Oregon, generally and its Black community specifically, making another wonderful contribution that allows Black readers to see themselves and all readers to find a character they can love.
Move over Ramona Quimby, Portland has another neighbor you have to meet! (Fiction. 8-10)Pub Date: April 28, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5476-0056-4
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: Jan. 20, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2020
A dramatic, educational, authentic whale of a tale.
After a tsunami devastates their habitat in the Salish Sea, a young orca and her brother embark on a remarkable adventure.
Vega’s matriarchal family expects her to become a hunter and wayfinder, with her younger brother, Deneb, protecting and supporting her. Invited to guide her family to their Gathering Place to hunt salmon, Vega’s underwater miscalculations endanger them all, and an embarrassed Vega questions whether she should be a wayfinder. When the baby sister she hoped would become her life companion is stillborn, a distraught Vega carries the baby away to a special resting place, shocking her grieving family. Dispatched to find his missing sister, Deneb locates Vega in the midst of a terrible tsunami. To escape the waters polluted by shattered boats, Vega leads Deneb into unfamiliar open sea. Alone and hungry, the young siblings encounter a spectacular giant whale and travel briefly with shark-hunting orcas. Trusting her instincts and gaining emotional strength from contemplating the vastness of the sky, Vega knows she must lead her brother home and help save her surviving family. In alternating first-person voices, Vega and Deneb tell their harrowing story, engaging young readers while educating them about the marine ecosystem. Realistic black-and-white illustrations enhance the maritime setting.
A dramatic, educational, authentic whale of a tale. (maps, wildlife facts, tribes of the Salish Sea watershed, environmental and geographical information, how to help orcas, author’s note, artist’s note, resources) (Animal fiction. 8-10)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-06-299592-6
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: June 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2020
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