The irrepressible Wimple family returns.
India Wimple, Australia’s champion speller, has returned home from her victory at the Stupendously Spectacular Spelling Bee in Sydney. Now that the mayor has awarded her the Yungabilla Medallion and giant plastic zucchini in commemoration of her feat, she just wants to get back to her quiet life. But then a letter arrives: an invitation to the Most Marvelous International Spelling Bee! Soon, the Wimples are off to London, where a mystery arises when a saboteur strikes. India is on the case, joined once again by her sweet and kooky family and pals Rajish and Summer, Australia’s other two top spellers. New competitors-turned-friends include bullied English boy Peter and a neglected Canadian girl named Holly, both of whom are looking for acceptance. Absurd humor abounds: When the contestants and their parents meet the queen, Holly’s fitness-guru parents try to sell her their Beaut Butts and Guts exercise program; the Wimples can’t understand why no-nonsense Nanna Flo keeps giggling (she’s smitten with Peter’s grandfather); and the bee’s special guest is the only three-time world champion, a grown man resembling Liberace. Combine this with Bitskoff’s spot cartoons and lots of vocabulary that will be new to many young readers, and much merriment and edification mark this story of bravery, friendship, and logophilia. The cast is primarily white or assumed white; Indian-Australian Rajish and his family are notable exceptions.
Another round of laughs. (Fiction. 7-11)Pub Date: March 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4926-6819-0
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: Jan. 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2019
Categories: CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES
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BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A long-running series reaches its closing chapters.
Having, as Kline notes in her warm valedictory acknowledgements, taken 30 years to get through second and third grade, Harry Spooger is overdue to move on—but not just into fourth grade, it turns out, as his family is moving to another town as soon as the school year ends. The news leaves his best friend, narrator “Dougo,” devastated…particularly as Harry doesn’t seem all that fussed about it. With series fans in mind, the author takes Harry through a sort of last-day-of-school farewell tour. From his desk he pulls a burned hot dog and other items that featured in past episodes, says goodbye to Song Lee and other classmates, and even (for the first time ever) leads Doug and readers into his house and memento-strewn room for further reminiscing. Of course, Harry isn’t as blasé about the move as he pretends, and eyes aren’t exactly dry when he departs. But hardly is he out of sight before Doug is meeting Mohammad, a new neighbor from Syria who (along with further diversifying a cast that began as mostly white but has become increasingly multiethnic over the years) will also be starting fourth grade at summer’s end, and planning a written account of his “horrible” buddy’s exploits. Finished illustrations not seen.
A fitting farewell, still funny, acute, and positive in its view of human nature even in its 37th episode. (Fiction. 7-9)Pub Date: Nov. 27, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-451-47963-1
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Sept. 16, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2018
Categories: CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES
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BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A shy fourth-grader leads the revolt when censors decimate her North Carolina school’s library.
In a tale that is dominated but not overwhelmed by its agenda, Gratz takes Amy Anne, a young black bibliophile, from the devastating discovery that her beloved From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler has been removed from the library at the behest of Mrs. Spencer, a despised classmate’s mom, to a qualified defense of intellectual freedom at a school board meeting: “Nobody has the right to tell you what books you can and can’t read except your parents.” Meanwhile, as more books vanish, Amy Anne sets up a secret lending library of banned titles in her locker—a ploy that eventually gets her briefly suspended by the same unsympathetic principal who fires the school’s doctorate-holding white librarian for defiantly inviting Dav Pilkey in for an author visit. Characters frequently serve as mouthpieces for either side, sometimes deadly serious and other times tongue-in-cheek (“I don’t know about you guys, but ever since I read Wait Till Helen Comes, I’ve been thinking about worshipping Satan”). Indeed, Amy Anne’s narrative is positively laced with real titles that have been banned or challenged and further enticing teasers for them.
Contrived at some points, polemic at others, but a stout defense of the right to read. (discussion guide) (Fiction. 9-11)Pub Date: Aug. 29, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-7653-8556-7
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Starscape/Tom Doherty
Review Posted Online: June 4, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2017
Categories: CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES
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