A bighearted summer story, both genuine and familiar.
A young girl struggles with complex feelings while helping at her grandmother’s doggy day care.
Hazel and her mother have been in Minnesota for several weeks now, since Grandma had a heart attack. A local summer writing workshop isn’t quite what Hazel had hoped for; the instructor is a journalist, but Hazel wants to write fiction. In class, she hits it off with another student, Anjali, but Hazel and her mother are scheduled to return to Chicago before the last class, dashing her hopes of friendship with Anjali. Hazel feels out of sorts, “like there’s a hole” inside her. KC (who uses they/them pronouns) and their younger brother, Jonah, the children of Hazel’s mom’s best friend, seem closer to grumpy Grandma than Hazel is. Though KC and Hazel are both planning a play group for older dogs, Grandma seems far more appreciative of KC’s contributions. And when the senior dogs finally gather, one growls at Spot, Hazel’s elderly dalmatian. Disappointments accumulate, leading to frustration, but with support, Hazel carefully unpacks her feelings. Butler’s portrayal of preteen emotions is empathetic and recognizable, while a peek at dog training offers an appealing second layer to Hazel’s account, making for a lighthearted yet rich tale. Hazel and her family present white; Kote’s sunny grayscale illustrations suggest some diversity among the supporting cast.
A bighearted summer story, both genuine and familiar. (Fiction. 8-11)Pub Date: April 7, 2026
ISBN: 9781682637241
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Peachtree
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2026
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
SEEN & HEARD
PERSPECTIVES
However the compelling fitness of theme and event and the apt but unexpected imagery (the opening sentences compare the...
At a time when death has become an acceptable, even voguish subject in children's fiction, Natalie Babbitt comes through with a stylistic gem about living forever.
Protected Winnie, the ten-year-old heroine, is not immortal, but when she comes upon young Jesse Tuck drinking from a secret spring in her parents' woods, she finds herself involved with a family who, having innocently drunk the same water some 87 years earlier, haven't aged a moment since. Though the mood is delicate, there is no lack of action, with the Tucks (previously suspected of witchcraft) now pursued for kidnapping Winnie; Mae Tuck, the middle aged mother, striking and killing a stranger who is onto their secret and would sell the water; and Winnie taking Mae's place in prison so that the Tucks can get away before she is hanged from the neck until....? Though Babbitt makes the family a sad one, most of their reasons for discontent are circumstantial and there isn't a great deal of wisdom to be gleaned from their fate or Winnie's decision not to share it.
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1975
ISBN: 0312369816
Page Count: 164
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: April 13, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1975
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SEEN & HEARD
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