Tantalizing glimpses of a diverse neighborhood’s cultures and origins, with insight into the commonality that underlies them.
Successive generations of children in the same Lower East Side tenement map out a common immigrant experience in New York City.
Using the term stories in both senses of the word, Weinstein opens with a cutaway view of the building that shows one of the five families on each floor. She then introduces Jenny Epstein, her actual grandmother, who in 1914 moved with her Russian Jewish family into the building, where they lived above a pickle store. Four fictive young recent arrivals follow from Italy (1932), the Dominican Republic (1965), Puerto Rico (1989), and China (“Today”). The text offers mere snapshots, too short to include more than a few common concerns or details of daily life (though to link the generations, each child mentions knowing the inhabitant of the floor below). But the illustrations are filled with lavish period details, both of domestic furnishings inside and dress, cars, and changing shop signs outside. “Hosiery” becomes “Sportswear,” “Latticini” makes way for “Bodega,” Chinese characters appear, and other businesses come and go—except for the pickle place, which remains as a visual anchor while adding mango, okra, and kimchi to its advertised wares by the end. Weinstein also tracks a growing diversity of people as well as food, while in her afterword she properly acknowledges that her five families can only suggest how rich the community’s real racial and cultural mix is.
Tantalizing glimpses of a diverse neighborhood’s cultures and origins, with insight into the commonality that underlies them. (Informational picture book. 6-9)Pub Date: April 9, 2024
ISBN: 9780823451678
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: Jan. 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
This outing lacks the sophistication of such category standards as Clementine; here’s hoping English amps things up for...
A gentle voice and familiar pitfalls characterize this tale of a boy navigating the risky road to responsibility.
Gavin is new to his neighborhood and Carver Elementary. He likes his new friend, Richard, and has a typically contentious relationship with his older sister, Danielle. When Gavin’s desire to impress Richard sets off a disastrous chain of events, the boy struggles to evade responsibility for his actions. “After all, it isn’t his fault that Danielle’s snow globe got broken. Sure, he shouldn’t have been in her room—but then, she shouldn’t be keeping candy in her room to tempt him. Anybody would be tempted. Anybody!” opines Gavin once he learns the punishment for his crime. While Gavin has a charming Everyboy quality, and his aversion to Aunt Myrtle’s yapping little dog rings true, little about Gavin distinguishes him from other trouble-prone protagonists. He is, regrettably, forgettable. Coretta Scott King Honor winner English (Francie, 1999) is a teacher whose storytelling usually benefits from her day job. Unfortunately, the pizzazz of classroom chaos is largely absent from this series opener.
This outing lacks the sophistication of such category standards as Clementine; here’s hoping English amps things up for subsequent volumes. (Fiction. 6-9)Pub Date: Dec. 17, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-547-97044-8
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 1, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
It’s hard to argue with success, but guides that actually do the math will be more useful to budding capitalists.
How to raise money for a coveted poster: put your friends to work!
John, founder of the FUBU fashion line and a Shark Tank venture capitalist, offers a self-referential blueprint for financial success. Having only half of the $10 he needs for a Minka J poster, Daymond forks over $1 to buy a plain T-shirt, paints a picture of the pop star on it, sells it for $5, and uses all of his cash to buy nine more shirts. Then he recruits three friends to decorate them with his design and help sell them for an unspecified amount (from a conveniently free and empty street-fair booth) until they’re gone. The enterprising entrepreneur reimburses himself for the shirts and splits the remaining proceeds, which leaves him with enough for that poster as well as a “brand-new business book,” while his friends express other fiscal strategies: saving their share, spending it all on new art supplies, or donating part and buying a (math) book with the rest. (In a closing summation, the author also suggests investing in stocks, bonds, or cryptocurrency.) Though Miles cranks up the visual energy in her sparsely detailed illustrations by incorporating bright colors and lots of greenbacks, the actual advice feels a bit vague. Daymond is Black; most of the cast are people of color. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
It’s hard to argue with success, but guides that actually do the math will be more useful to budding capitalists. (Picture book. 7-9)Pub Date: March 21, 2023
ISBN: 978-0-593-56727-2
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2023
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