Sixth-grader Millicent’s best invention ever, a substance that softens the hearts of bullies, has unexpected side effects. Suddenly the bullies who had tormented her friends are following them around, declaring their undying love. And the odor carries over the Curmudgeonly Mountains to a homeless woman who wakes up and remembers her former life as a human cannonball in a circus and as Millicent’s Uncle Phineas’s wife. While Millicent tries desperately to invent a substance that will counteract Bully-Be-Gone, flouting Uncle Phineas’s rule that inventions must improve people’s lives, Aunt Felicity charms a bus station porter into getting her on a bus to Masonville, only to have the bus threatened by a blind bear hungry for an eight-person meal. Like the bus carrying the long-lost Aunt Felicity home, the humor in this story of invention-gone-awry teeters on the precipice of over-the-top, depending heavily on coincidence and amnesia. But young readers will giggle at names like Miss Dewey the librarian and Boris Hoggle the piggy-back racer wanna-be, sympathize with Millicent’s friendship issues and cheer at the dénouement. First in a new series, this will be an easy sell to middle-graders looking for light fare. (Fiction. 8-11)
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-06-073911-8
Page Count: 224
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2005
BOOK REVIEW
Despite its lackluster execution, this story’s simple premise and basic vocabulary make it suitable for younger readers...
From the author of the Animorphs series comes this earnest novel in verse about an orphaned Sudanese war refugee with a passion for cows, who has resettled in Minnesota with relatives.
Arriving in winter, Kek spots a cow that reminds him of his father’s herd, a familiar sight in an alien world. Later he returns with Hannah, a friendly foster child, and talks the cow’s owner into hiring him to look after it. When the owner plans to sell the cow, Kek becomes despondent. Full of wide-eyed amazement and unalloyed enthusiasm for all things American, Kek is a generic—bordering on insulting—stereotype. His tribe, culture and language are never identified; personal details, such as appearance and age, are vague or omitted. Lacking the quirks and foibles that bring characters to life, Kek seems more a composite of traits designed to instruct readers than an engaging individual in his own right.
Despite its lackluster execution, this story’s simple premise and basic vocabulary make it suitable for younger readers interested in the plight of war refugees. (Fiction. 9-11)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2007
ISBN: 978-0-312-36765-7
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2007
Though it lacks nuance, still a must-read.
Tyler is the son of generations of Vermont dairy farmers.
Mari is the Mexican-born daughter of undocumented migrant laborers whose mother has vanished in a perilous border crossing. When Tyler’s father is disabled in an accident, the only way the family can afford to keep the farm is by hiring Mari’s family. As Tyler and Mari’s friendship grows, the normal tensions of middle-school boy-girl friendships are complicated by philosophical and political truths. Tyler wonders how he can be a patriot while his family breaks the law. Mari worries about her vanished mother and lives in fear that she will be separated from her American-born sisters if la migra comes. Unashamedly didactic, Alvarez’s novel effectively complicates simple equivalencies between what’s illegal and what’s wrong. Mari’s experience is harrowing, with implied atrocities and immigration raids, but equally full of good people doing the best they can. The two children find hope despite the unhappily realistic conclusions to their troubles, in a story which sees the best in humanity alongside grim realities.
Though it lacks nuance, still a must-read. (Fiction. 9-11)Pub Date: Jan. 13, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-375-85838-3
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2008
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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