illustrated by Cathy Bobak & by Betsy Byars ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 1990
In his third appearance, the likable preteen adds a new experience—the suspenseful premature birth of a new brother—to his ongoing, but still tentative, interest in the opposite sex. Added to the comic triangle introduced in Bingo Brown and the Language of Love (1989)—friend Billy is still smitten with Cici, who continues to pursue the unwilling Bingo—is a new girl, Boots, whose persistent telephone calls follow up her embarrassing discovery of Bingo in a bookstore looking for Gypsy Lover (a title he understands his dear, faraway friend Melissa has applied to him). Bingo is still uneasy with "mixed sex" conversations; but on the rare occasions when he's allowed to telephone Melissa, he forgets she's a girl in the delight of communication. More important during this Christman season, however, is his mother's losing battle to carry her new baby to term; the story's real focus is Bingo suffering through prenatal sibling rivalry and the anxiety of a nightlong vigil with his grandmother (with realistic but largely comforting information on what's going on) while Jamie is born, then falling in love with the tiny but perfect baby through the hospital window. Though less tightly structured than the earlier Bingo books, this still engages with its deliciously concise humor and its memorable portrait of a quintessentially nice but altogether human boy. A treat for fans of both Bingo and Byars.
Pub Date: May 1, 1990
ISBN: 0140345183
Page Count: 132
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: April 18, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 1990
Share your opinion of this book
More by Dorothy Haas
BOOK REVIEW
by Dorothy Haas & illustrated by Cathy Bobak
BOOK REVIEW
by Jean Rossbach & illustrated by Cathy Bobak
BOOK REVIEW
illustrated by Cathy Bobak & by Betsy Byars
by Louis Sachar ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 1998
Good Guys and Bad get just deserts in the end, and Stanley gets plenty of opportunities to display pluck and valor in this...
Sentenced to a brutal juvenile detention camp for a crime he didn't commit, a wimpy teenager turns four generations of bad family luck around in this sunburnt tale of courage, obsession, and buried treasure from Sachar (Wayside School Gets a Little Stranger, 1995, etc.).
Driven mad by the murder of her black beau, a schoolteacher turns on the once-friendly, verdant town of Green Lake, Texas, becomes feared bandit Kissin' Kate Barlow, and dies, laughing, without revealing where she buried her stash. A century of rainless years later, lake and town are memories—but, with the involuntary help of gangs of juvenile offenders, the last descendant of the last residents is still digging. Enter Stanley Yelnats IV, great-grandson of one of Kissin' Kate's victims and the latest to fall to the family curse of being in the wrong place at the wrong time; under the direction of The Warden, a woman with rattlesnake venom polish on her long nails, Stanley and each of his fellow inmates dig a hole a day in the rock-hard lake bed. Weeks of punishing labor later, Stanley digs up a clue, but is canny enough to conceal the information of which hole it came from. Through flashbacks, Sachar weaves a complex net of hidden relationships and well-timed revelations as he puts his slightly larger-than-life characters under a sun so punishing that readers will be reaching for water bottles.
Good Guys and Bad get just deserts in the end, and Stanley gets plenty of opportunities to display pluck and valor in this rugged, engrossing adventure. (Fiction. 9-13)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1998
ISBN: 978-0-374-33265-5
Page Count: 233
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2000
Share your opinion of this book
More by Louis Sachar
BOOK REVIEW
by Louis Sachar ; illustrated by Tim Heitz
BOOK REVIEW
by Louis Sachar
BOOK REVIEW
by Louis Sachar
by Emily Winfield Martin ; illustrated by Emily Winfield Martin ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 25, 2015
Wonderful, indeed
Awards & Accolades
Likes
11
Our Verdict
GET IT
Google Rating
New York Times Bestseller
A love song to baby with delightful illustrations to boot.
Sweet but not saccharine and singsong but not forced, Martin’s text is one that will invite rereadings as it affirms parental wishes for children while admirably keeping child readers at its heart. The lines that read “This is the first time / There’s ever been you, / So I wonder what wonderful things / You will do” capture the essence of the picture book and are accompanied by a diverse group of babies and toddlers clad in downright adorable outfits. Other spreads include older kids, too, and pictures expand on the open text to visually interpret the myriad possibilities and hopes for the depicted children. For example, a spread reading “Will you learn how to fly / To find the best view?” shows a bespectacled, school-aged girl on a swing soaring through an empty white background. This is just one spread in which Martin’s fearless embrace of the white of the page serves her well. Throughout the book, she maintains a keen balance of layout choices, and surprising details—zebras on the wallpaper behind a father cradling his child, a rock-’n’-roll band of mice paralleling the children’s own band called “The Missing Teeth”—add visual interest and gentle humor. An ideal title for the baby-shower gift bag and for any nursery bookshelf or lap-sit storytime.
Wonderful, indeed . (Picture book. 1-4)Pub Date: Aug. 25, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-385-37671-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: June 5, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2015
Share your opinion of this book
More by Emily Winfield Martin
BOOK REVIEW
by Emily Winfield Martin ; illustrated by Emily Winfield Martin
BOOK REVIEW
by Emily Winfield Martin ; illustrated by Emily Winfield Martin
BOOK REVIEW
by Emily Winfield Martin ; illustrated by Emily Winfield Martin
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Hey there, book lover.
We’re glad you found a book that interests you!
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Don’t fret. We’ll find you.