A realistic, humorous, and compassionate treatment of middle school angst makes for an accessible and appealing read.
Sixth-grader Abbie Wu knows that “if something CAN go wrong, it definitely WILL!”
And it does. The hilariously glum Asian protagonist of Frazzled: Everyday Disasters and Impending Doom (2016) is back with more mishaps and doom. Over Abbie’s protests, her little sister, Clara, is given a cat for her birthday, and of course, Mr. Felix McSnuggles the Third diabolically terrorizes Abbie when no one else is looking. At school, the sixth-graders are finally getting their own lockers—but when Abbie goes to unlock hers, she finds that it has been “hijacked by a MONSTER.” Things continue downhill when the science teacher assigns everyone to a partner for the upcoming unit, and inevitably Abbie’s partner is...the locker thief. While readers may anticipate the general plot direction (“I guess, when you think about it, some things really do work out”), they will also appreciate Abbie’s astute observations (“Teachers never let you choose your partner, and unless you were very very lucky, you usually got someone you never really wanted to get at all”) and Vivat’s fresh, funny illustrations. Cartoon vignettes seamlessly capture a diverse cast—in a telling aside, Abbie’s portrayal of teachers mistaking her for another Asian girl, Abbie Wong, is particularly sharp.
A realistic, humorous, and compassionate treatment of middle school angst makes for an accessible and appealing read. (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-06-239881-9
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Aug. 20, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often...
A successful juvenile by the beloved New Yorker writer portrays a farm episode with an imaginative twist that makes a poignant, humorous story of a pig, a spider and a little girl.
Young Fern Arable pleads for the life of runt piglet Wilbur and gets her father to sell him to a neighbor, Mr. Zuckerman. Daily, Fern visits the Zuckermans to sit and muse with Wilbur and with the clever pen spider Charlotte, who befriends him when he is lonely and downcast. At the news of Wilbur's forthcoming slaughter, campaigning Charlotte, to the astonishment of people for miles around, spins words in her web. "Some Pig" comes first. Then "Terrific"—then "Radiant". The last word, when Wilbur is about to win a show prize and Charlotte is about to die from building her egg sac, is "Humble". And as the wonderful Charlotte does die, the sadness is tempered by the promise of more spiders next spring.
The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often informative as amusing, and the whole tenor of appealing wit and pathos will make fine entertainment for reading aloud, too.Pub Date: Oct. 15, 1952
ISBN: 978-0-06-026385-0
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1952
PERSPECTIVES
SEEN & HEARD
A successful call for creating and imagining, even if the story itself falls short.
In the dystopian, totalitarian world of 2099, 14-year-old Tessa and her family are desperate to solve the mystery of her twin brother Theo’s disappearance.
Tessa is growing up in a time when playgrounds are historical relics, surveillance cameras are everywhere, music is outlawed, and owning books is illegal. Under the absolute rule of Zokiris, the decadeslong leader of her territory, people are heavily controlled. When Theo vanishes under mysterious circumstances and his name is erased from the Territory Statistics list, Tessa’s 135-year-old neighbor, Miriam, gives the family contraband books that become central to figuring out Theo’s whereabouts. Most books have long since been seized and stored away in Building 903; Tessa is intrigued by their presence in her home, while her mother is terrified. Lowry, the acclaimed, award-winning author of The Giver (1993), shines in her creation of uncomfortably believable dystopian societies. Tessa’s painfully limited world is fully imagined, with its own history, laws, and norms. Her relationship with her brother reads as realistic and tender and is crucial to the mystery. Miriam is the most strongly developed character: wise and independent, unafraid and hopeful. While the climb to the book’s climax is captivating, the hurried resolution is disappointing. The powerful messaging around the importance of literature and imagination certainly resonates, however. The main characters present white.
A successful call for creating and imagining, even if the story itself falls short. (Dystopian. 9-12)Pub Date: Sept. 29, 2026
ISBN: 9780063515109
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Clarion/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 6, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2026
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