A quietly affecting portrait of an aspiring activist logophile as a black Philly girl.
The NAACP Image Award–nominated author of Riding Chance (2016) cultivates another tale of blossoming blackness in the soil of her hometown of Philadelphia.
Geneva “Neva” Beane, 12, uses her Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary and its definitions to help her describe and navigate the world as much as the author uses the vocabulary words to frame each chapter. Neva’s world is filled with the increasingly agitating presence of her 16-year-old lifeguard brother, Clayton, and her lovingly well-intentioned, sometimes brusque grandparents Nana and Granddad, who are rearing the siblings while their parents pursue their musical dreams in Europe. It shifts when she reassesses her developing body, her familial relationships, and her friendship with her bestie, Jamila, through the upending presence of Michelle Overton, the 13-year-old across-the-street neighbor whom Neva describes as “hot and happening” and whom Granddad and Nana suspect of being “trouble” by involving Clayton in social activism, which they eschew for quieter forms of community service. Soon, Michelle’s friendship with Clayton leads to her befriending Neva, creating escalating tension between Neva and Jamila as well as Neva and her guardians. Will Neva’s belief in words help her believe in herself, her body, her family and friends, and her place in her politically expanding world? Through Neva’s intelligent narration, Kendall explores contemporary debates to young readers, making them plain and personal.
A quietly affecting portrait of an aspiring activist logophile as a black Philly girl. (Fiction. 10-12)Pub Date: Sept. 15, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-338-32489-1
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: June 2, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
An entertaining continuation to a magical series that celebrates diversity with a magical twist.
With Rumpelstiltskin and his band of villains still on the loose, the students and staff of Fairy Tale Reform School are on high alert as they prepare for the next attack.
Classes are devoted to teaching battle techniques and conjuring new weapons, which narrator Gilly finds preferable to learning history or manners. But Maxine, her ogress friend, has had it with all the doom and gloom. The last straw is when the agenda at the Royal Lady-in-Waiting meeting is changed from “How to Plan the Perfect Fairy Garden Party” to designing flying rocks and creating flower darts. While on a class field trip to the village to investigate their future careers, Maxine finds a magic lamp housing a genie named Darlene. Her wish that everyone be happy works a little too well. War preparations are put on hold as the school fills with flowers, laughter, and plans for a musical production. But when Gilly is tapped to fill in for the local chief of the dwarf police, things really take a turn for the worse. The students, including fairies, ogres, and the part-human/part-beast offspring of Beauty and the ex-Beast, focus on friendship and supporting one another in spite of their differences. Humility, forgiveness, and loyalty are also highly regarded in the FTRS community. Human Gilly is white, but there is racial as well as species diversity at FTRS.
An entertaining continuation to a magical series that celebrates diversity with a magical twist. (Fantasy. 10-12)Pub Date: March 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4926-5167-3
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: Nov. 20, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2018
The Baudelaire children—Violet, 14, Klaus, 12, and baby Sunny—are exceedingly ill-fated; Snicket extracts both humor and horror from their situation, as he gleefully puts them through one terrible ordeal after another. After receiving the news that their parents died in a fire, the three hapless orphans are delivered into the care of Count Olaf, who “is either a third cousin four times removed, or a fourth cousin three times removed.” The villainous Count Olaf is morally depraved and generally mean, and only takes in the downtrodden yet valiant children so that he can figure out a way to separate them from their considerable inheritance. The youngsters are able to escape his clutches at the end, but since this is the first installment in A Series of Unfortunate Events, there will be more ghastly doings. Written with old-fashioned flair, this fast-paced book is not for the squeamish: the Baudelaire children are truly sympathetic characters who encounter a multitude of distressing situations. Those who enjoy a little poison in their porridge will find it wicked good fun. (b&w illustrations, not seen) (Fiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: Sept. 30, 1999
ISBN: 0-06-440766-7
Page Count: 162
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1999
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