In the new Good Health Guidelines series, a sensible, middle-of-the-road approach to nutrition. Beginning with a pep talk about how tasty healthy foods can be, Reef enlivens her well-organized presentation with portrayals of typical kids and the pressures or circumstances influencing their diets. She details the digestive process, presents the new guidelines (without defining a ``serving''), lists sources of nutrients, explains connections between diet and health, and offers young people strategies for gradually improving the quality of what they eat. Useful diagrams and attractive color photos of food and of young people preparing it contribute to the appetizing format. Also available: Think Positive: Cope with Stress (ISBN: 0-8050- 2443-3) and Stay Fit: Build a Strong Body (0-8050-2441-7). Bibliography; index. (Nonfiction. 9-12)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-8050-2442-5
Page Count: 64
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 1993
Opens as standard living-with-disability tale, grows into a heartwarming story about a community discovering activism.
When Ava’s only friend moves away, anxiety makes finding a new social circle daunting.
Ava’s best friend, Zelia, has always been her prop and support. It’s tough being an 11-year-old with a pacemaker; the noncompaction cardiomyopathy she was born with (Ava had heart surgery when she was only 4) combines with intense anxiety to leave Ava self-loathing and socially isolated. Her dad teaches cotillion classes for sixth graders, and Ava, like her older brothers before her, is required to attend, to dance, and to make excruciating small talk. A girl in class invites her to an improv group, and Ava reluctantly agrees. To her shock, improv, which celebrates failure, is amazing for her anxiety. But the improv theater and the waterfront where it’s located are under threat from pricey real estate developers. Saving the area from gentrification will require a committed activist, though, and Ava can barely speak in public. Cotillion and improv give Ava tool sets to use to live with anxiety, and the cause gives her a motivation. The conclusion is optimistically uncomplicated, but in a story that successfully explores the complexities of chronic illness mixed with mental illness, the comfort is welcome. Ava is biracial, Japanese American and white, and lives in a diverse community; the vice principal and Ava’s therapist are black, and the mean real estate developer is almost stereotypically white.
Opens as standard living-with-disability tale, grows into a heartwarming story about a community discovering activism. (author’s note, improv games) (Fiction. 9-11)Pub Date: June 9, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-06-280349-8
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Fun, honest, and uplifting: applause!
An aspiring actor who uses a manual wheelchair is determined to land a part in a community theater production.
Moving cross-country from California to New Jersey and leaving her best friend, Chloe, behind is hard enough for Nat. Even worse, the new house doesn’t feel like home, and her parents are as overprotective as ever. When Nat, an avid fan of musicals, spots an advertisement for the local theater’s production of Wicked, she’s sure that nabbing a part will make her feel at home. But her father wants her to focus on wheelchair racing, and her mother doubts her ability to fit in; it’s up to Nat to prove she can take the stage. The authors know their stuff—Tony Award–winner Stroker was the first wheelchair user to be cast in a Broadway play, and Davidowitz is a playwright—and it shows. Nat’s relationship with her loving but overbearing parents rings perceptively and painfully true, as does her frustration with inaccessible venues and patronizing attitudes. Her enthusiasm for the theater is infectious, but readers needn’t be theater buffs to relate to her fear of growing apart from Chloe and her desire for independence. A quirky cast of secondary characters lends humor, support, and a little romance as they illustrate the fun and rigor of acting. Nat defaults to White; the secondary cast is somewhat diverse.
Fun, honest, and uplifting: applause! (authors’ note) (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: April 13, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-4197-4393-1
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Feb. 8, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
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