by Ferida Wolff ; illustrated by Margeaux Lucas ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 20, 2019
Hope, love, determination, and kindness abound.
Rachel does not like having to be responsible for her little sister Hannah, who idolizes her and wants to be just like her.
Papa has a good job, and Bubbie takes in laundry. Her mother has quit her job in order to design and sew a dress for a client, hoping eventually to start her own business. Every penny counts. But Rachel wants new buttons on her old skirt to wear for Rosh Hashanah. Mama gives her a nickel and she has six pennies of her own, but the beautiful rose buttons she craves cost more. The button seller agrees to hold the buttons, along with some for Hannah, until Rosh Hashanah. Now Rachel must earn the money. The drugstore has the only telephone on the block, and when calls come in, she brings the intended recipients to the phone, sometimes getting a penny for her help. When Hannah gets lost trying to help her, Rachel learns the value of generosity, and a very happy holiday ensues. Wolff has constructed a sweet, nostalgic vignette of early-20th-century immigrant New York City, alluding to the difficulties but stressing the goodness. Rachel and her family, friends, and neighbors are not anachronisms or caricatures but are entirely accessible to modern readers. Lucas’ lovely black-and-white drawings, reminiscent of Helen John’s in Sydney Taylor’s All of a Kind Family (1951), are perfectly in sync with the spirit of the text.
Hope, love, determination, and kindness abound. (Historical fiction. 7-10)Pub Date: Aug. 20, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-8234-4365-9
Page Count: 112
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2019
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by Claudia Mills ; illustrated by Rob Shepperson ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 14, 2016
Another winner from Mills, equally well suited to reading aloud and independent reading.
When Franklin School principal Mr. Boone announces a pet-show fundraiser, white third-grader Cody—whose lack of skill and interest in academics is matched by keen enthusiasm for and knowledge of animals—discovers his time to shine.
As with other books in this series, the children and adults are believable and well-rounded. Even the dialogue is natural—no small feat for a text easily accessible to intermediate readers. Character growth occurs, organically and believably. Students occasionally, humorously, show annoyance with teachers: “He made mad squinty eyes at Mrs. Molina, which fortunately she didn’t see.” Readers will be kept entertained by Cody’s various problems and the eventual solutions. His problems include needing to raise $10 to enter one of his nine pets in the show (he really wants to enter all of them), his troublesome dog Angus—“a dog who ate homework—actually, who ate everything and then threw up afterward”—struggles with homework, and grappling with his best friend’s apparently uncaring behavior toward a squirrel. Serious values and issues are explored with a light touch. The cheery pencil illustrations show the school’s racially diverse population as well as the memorable image of Mr. Boone wearing an elephant costume. A minor oddity: why does a child so immersed in animal facts call his male chicken a rooster but his female chickens chickens?
Another winner from Mills, equally well suited to reading aloud and independent reading. (Fiction. 7-10)Pub Date: June 14, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-374-30223-8
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: March 15, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2016
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by Joe McGee ; illustrated by Teo Skaffa ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 31, 2021
Lighthearted spook with a heaping side of silliness—and hair.
Fifth graders get into a hairy situation.
After an unnamed narrator’s full-page warning, readers dive right into a Wolver Hollow classroom. Mr. Noffler recounts the town legend about how, every Oct. 19, residents don fake mustaches and lock their doors. As the story goes, the late Bockius Beauregard was vaporized in an “unfortunate black powder incident,” but, somehow, his “magnificent mustache” survived to haunt the town. Once a year, the spectral ’stache searches for an exposed upper lip to rest upon. Is it real or superstition? Students Parker and Lucas—sole members of the Midnight Owl Detective Agency—decide to take the case and solve the mustache mystery. When they find that the book of legends they need for their research has been checked out from the library, they recruit the borrower: goth classmate Samantha von Oppelstein. Will the three of them be enough to take on the mustache and resolve its ghostly, unfinished business? Whether through ridiculous plot points or over-the-top descriptions, the comedy keeps coming in this first title in McGee’s new Night Frights series. A generous font and spacing make this quick-paced, 13-chapter story appealing to newly confident readers. Skaffa’s grayscale cartoon spot (and occasional full-page) illustrations help set the tone and accentuate the action. Though neither race or skin color is described in the text, images show Lucas and Samantha as light-skinned and Parker as dark-skinned.
Lighthearted spook with a heaping side of silliness—and hair. (maps) (Fiction. 7-10)Pub Date: Aug. 31, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5344-8089-6
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2021
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