The third in the BrainJuice series, this offering seeks to convey the parts of speech, grammatical rules and the principles of composition in 40 poems. It’s an interesting notion: As the prefatory note to her English teacher indicates, even avid readers frequently find the rules of the language downright painful, so why not render them into funny verse. The answer might possibly be that this verse is so light (approaching helium) that it’s hard to take seriously the very weighty concepts borne therein. Careful reading will reveal that there’s a lot of worthwhile information—the pair of poems on similes and metaphors lead one to the other nicely, and the poem on verb tense explains the past and future perfect extraordinarily well. But the verse itself is that lockstep rhyming doggerel that so crowds the universe of children’s poetry and is consequently all too easy to dismiss. Shields introduces topics at the top of the page by appropriate quotes from such sources as Twain, Shaw and The Chicago Manual of Style, but these luminaries are not exploited to their full capacity as companions to the primary content. There’s just not enough pulp in the glass. (Poetry. 9-12)
Pub Date: April 1, 2005
ISBN: 1-59354-053-1
Page Count: 80
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2005
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A strong depiction of both the struggles of refugees and the resilience and love one girl finds within herself.
In this long-awaited sequel to Inside Out & Back Again (2011), Hà’s story of adjusting to life outside of Vietnam continues.
Since coming to the United States from Vietnam as a refugee, she has changed and grown in her new country. After finally settling into school and making a friend, Hà is excited to experience an American birthday party. But then her mother announces her plans to move the family from Alabama to Texas in search of new opportunities. Twelve-year-old Hà dreads the thought of starting over once again, but she is eventually outvoted. In Texas, her mother and brother find jobs, and Hà, determined to help, has her own plans to grow and sell plants. At the same time, she navigates the trials of a new school, casual racism and prejudice, and puberty. Through its verse structure, the narration allows Hà’s humor and determination to shine through. As she continues to strive to be true to herself, she finds that this means walking an entirely new path, something different from what her mother imagined but also different from the paths of her classmates. Addressing the challenges of making a new life after trauma and war while also exploring the powerful bonds that shape a family, this is a frank and beautiful continuation of Hà’s story that is also accessible to readers meeting her for the first time.
A strong depiction of both the struggles of refugees and the resilience and love one girl finds within herself. (Verse fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: May 9, 2023
ISBN: 9780063047006
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 7, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2023
PERSPECTIVES
Anchored by massive resource lists for adults in tiny type at the back, these 12 thumbnails attempt, not very successfully, to introduce to young or inexpert readers the idea of “multiple intelligences.” After suggesting that “smart” can mean more than scholastic excellence, the author proceeds to prove the opposite with a cast of professionals that mixes such non-household names as physicist/geologist Luis Alvarez, astronomer Annie Jump Cannon and botanist Ynés Mexía with the more familiar likes of Thurgood Marshall, Georgia O’Keeffe and I.M. Pei. Opposite stylized, expressionistic but still recognizable portraits from Qualls, he introduces each with roughly hewn, rap-style verses, followed by a single-paragraph career sketch. Though at the beginning he lists eight intelligences, such as “Body Smart,” “Logic Smart” and even “Nature Smart,” Nikola-Lisa never directly links any of them to his subjects; instead, he instructs readers to figure it out for themselves—without providing more than scattered, vague clues. It’s a worthy concept for creative types and other misfits to absorb, but the author doesn’t seem to understand it very well himself. (Collective biography. 9-12)
Pub Date: May 1, 2006
ISBN: 1-58430-254-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Lee & Low Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2006
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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