A worst day to remember among the pantheon of Wimpy Kids and Dorks.
A supremely unlucky kid’s terrible, horrible, no good, very bad first day at a new school.
Only a bold or foolish narrator would start a book by calling out the upcoming story beats like Babe Ruth predicting a home run. But Justin Chase does just that, warning readers of the mortification to come. Now that his mom has married Vlad, his new stepdad, both of whom work the night shift, he’ll be living with his dad during the week and spending weekends with his mom—and that means attending a new school. His ill-fitting clothing, the embarrassing car his plumber father drives (“a giant TOILET on wheels”), and the fact that he shares his name with a famous singer set him up for bullying from the get-go. Neighbor and classmate Mia is a rare social lifeline throughout Justin’s trials, which include two scatological incidents so gross that the book cuts away to images of cute animals. Cosgrove’s humorous, cartoonish illustrations appear on nearly every page. The text frequently employs large, bold, and capitalized words, suggesting an emphatic reading whether out loud or in one’s head. These visual elements help exaggerate the many outlandish incidents that occur. Readers won’t be able to look away while wondering how much worse this day can get. Justin and most of the cast have skin the white of the page.
A worst day to remember among the pantheon of Wimpy Kids and Dorks. (trivia, how to draw Justin, authors' note) (Fiction. 9-11)Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781338857542
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Dec. 6, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2024
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
SEEN & HEARD
PERSPECTIVES
The journey is even gently funny—Omakayas’s brother spends much of the year with a porcupine on his head. Charming and...
This third entry in the Birchbark House series takes Omakayas and her family west from their home on the Island of the Golden-Breasted Woodpecker, away from land the U.S. government has claimed.
Difficulties abound; the unknown landscape is fraught with danger, and they are nearing hostile Bwaanag territory. Omakayas’s family is not only close, but growing: The travelers adopt two young chimookoman (white) orphans along the way. When treachery leaves them starving and alone in a northern Minnesota winter, it will take all of their abilities and love to survive. The heartwarming account of Omakayas’s year of travel explores her changing family relationships and culminates in her first moon, the onset of puberty. It would be understandable if this darkest-yet entry in Erdrich’s response to the Little House books were touched by bitterness, yet this gladdening story details Omakayas’s coming-of-age with appealing optimism.
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-06-029787-9
Page Count: 208
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2008
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