A leisurely character study with a useful lesson.
Fifth-grader Lucy Tanaka's attempt to surprise a classmate with a kind gesture goes wrong.
Following Chloe on the Bright Side (2016), this second episode in Sheinmel’s Kindness Club series stars designer-to-be Lucy Tanaka, who worries that her bond with friends Chloe Silver and Theo Barnes (both are white) will weaken if they aren’t always engaged in the acts of kindness their club stands for. Her latest idea is a surprise birthday party for classmate Serena Kappas at the Tanaka family’s bowling alley. Serena’s mother has just died. Mixed-race Lucy knows something about being motherless; her Afro-Japanese-American mother died when she was only 1, but it still makes her sad sometimes. But she’s sure a bowling party will make Serena’s day memorable. When it turns out that Lucy’s Japanese-American father, distracted by his failing business, hadn’t agreed and wasn’t in a position to supply a party, and worse, that Serena didn’t want it, Lucy feels horrible. Instead of making people happy, she made people sad. The author allows the complications to build slowly as she develops her title character and demonstrates the ins and outs of fifth-grade friendship. Lucy’s first-person narration reveals her wonderful creativity, her emotional fragility, and her generous but impulsive nature, which doesn’t always stop for second thoughts. Readers caught up in her worldview will applaud the resolution.
A leisurely character study with a useful lesson. (Fiction. 8-11)Pub Date: Nov. 7, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-68119-117-1
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Certain to elicit both gales of giggles and winces of sympathy (not to mention recognition) from young readers.
First volume of a planned three, this edited version of an ongoing online serial records a middle-school everykid’s triumphs and (more often) tribulations through the course of a school year.
Largely through his own fault, mishaps seem to plague Greg at every turn, from the minor freak-outs of finding himself permanently seated in class between two pierced stoners and then being saddled with his mom for a substitute teacher, to being forced to wrestle in gym with a weird classmate who has invited him to view his “secret freckle.” Presented in a mix of legible “hand-lettered” text and lots of simple cartoon illustrations with the punch lines often in dialogue balloons, Greg’s escapades, unwavering self-interest and sardonic commentary are a hoot and a half.
Certain to elicit both gales of giggles and winces of sympathy (not to mention recognition) from young readers. (Fiction. 9-11)Pub Date: April 1, 2007
ISBN: 0-8109-9313-9
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2007
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
PERSPECTIVES
Wholesome? Yes. Proper hard work and teamwork values in place? Yes. Paint by numbers? Oh, yes.
Olympic gold medalist Morgan runs down the celebrity-sports-fiction checklist in this series opener: New school? Check. New friends? Check. New boyfriend? Maybe! New soccer team? Check. Inspire said team to take on snooty archrival private school? Check.
Quickly shedding perfunctory initial reservations, Devin sails into seventh grade at Kentville Middle School, makes instant connections in class and at Kangaroos soccer tryouts. She meets requisite bully Mirabelle at the latter, then goes on to be elected team co-captain. After a disastrous start to the season, she helps her team’s members and even the less-than-rigorous coach land on the same winning page. Following a sleepover, a dance, team-building drills and exercises, pep rallies, minor problem-solving and motivational strategizing, Devin prods the Kangaroos into position to beat the haughty Pinewood Panthers in a climactic rematch while also schooling Mirabelle, who has jumped ship to join the rival team.
Wholesome? Yes. Proper hard work and teamwork values in place? Yes. Paint by numbers? Oh, yes. (soccer glossary) (Fiction. 8-10)Pub Date: May 7, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4424-8570-9
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: March 26, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
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