As readers of Regan's Monsters in the Attic (1995) already know, Rilla Harmony Earth (formerly Rilla Pinowski) receives a different monster in the mail every month. Usually the monsters are stuffed animals, but sometimes, when the cosmic forces line up just right, they come to life. September's offering, a bespectacled owl, arrives laughing. Concealing the live monsters from her family is never easy for Rilla, and feeding them can be a problem if they prefer junk food, because Rilla's health-conscious mother runs a very New Age bed-and-breakfast. Owl is easier to care for than the others; he eats paper and comprehends the words on any print material he consumes. Owl is a big help with homework, but when he eats part of a computer manual, he goes wild surfing the Internet. Rilla's problems are compounded when the July and August monsters come alive, but monster management isn't the only thing on her mind: She wants to use the Internet to find her missing father, and she goes out on her first date. Regan skillfully mixes fantasy with realistic 13-year-old behavior, adding a lot of tongue-in-cheek humor about Rilla's politically correct family. Along the way, Sweet provides funny black-and-white illustrations. This offering in the series puts middle-grade readers right into Rilla's shoes, and it couldn't be a better fit. (Fiction. 8-12)
Pub Date: May 1, 1997
ISBN: 0-8050-4677-1
Page Count: 178
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1997
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An incredibly heartfelt depiction of immigrants and refugees in a land full of uncertainty.
Picking up a week after the grueling journey chronicled in The Only Road (2016), Diaz’s profound sequel finds 12-year-old Jaime Rivera and his cousin Ángela adjusting to life in El Norte.
Jaime doesn’t know English too well, and his first days at school result in an unfortunate bathroom accident, mocking giggles from his classmates, and snide comments from the class bully, Diego. To Jaime’s horror, Ángela seems to have changed overnight, making new friends with ease, switching to English almost exclusively, and acting aloof about their recent odyssey. Meanwhile, the specter of deportation looms endlessly, and terrible news from Guatemala involving Abuela and the Alphas erases any hope of returning to their village any time soon. Like its predecessor, this timely follow-up addresses the threats that immigrants and refugees face daily in El Norte, where “talk of a massive wall and deporting all of us” continues unabated. Diaz keeps the intimate third-person narration intact as she skillfully explores Jaime’s new life in New Mexico, although the novel’s noble objectives often deny any meaningful character development. Fortunately, well-sketched friends and family offer Jaime support in unexpected ways, including Sean, a deaf, white schoolmate who incites a pleasant subplot, and the gentle Don Vicente, an old Mexican cowboy whose relationship with Jaime forms the heart of the novel.
An incredibly heartfelt depiction of immigrants and refugees in a land full of uncertainty. (author’s note, references, further reading, glossary) (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 4, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5344-1455-6
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Paula Wiseman/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: June 10, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2018
Flattened once more, this time not by a falling bulletin board but a double blow to his elusive “Osteal Balance Point”—or so says family GP Dr. Dan—Stanley Lambchop gets two more chances to play the hero before popping back into shape. First he becomes a human spinnaker in a sailboat race, then he worms his way through the wreckage of a collapsed building to rescue ever-rude classmate Emma Weeks. Alluding to previous episodes, Stanley complains, “Why me? Why am I always getting flat, or invisible, or something?” Mr. Lambchop replies, “But things often happen without there seeming to be a reason, and then something else happens, and suddenly the first thing seems to have had a purpose after all.” Perhaps—even if that purpose is just to tread water, as Brown does here. Still, with its cartoon illustrations, well-leaded text and general goofiness, this retread is as likely to draw transitional readers as the perennial favorite Flat Stanley (1964) and its sequels. (Fiction. 8-10)
Pub Date: March 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-06-009551-2
Page Count: 96
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2003
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