Phineas, good-humored and insightful in his believable first-person voice, once again provides a pertinent, easy-to-read...
Fourth-grade scientist Phineas L. MacGuire is back for another outing, exploring science ideas in the world around him and figuring out a way to deal with the class bully.
He’s supported by his friends, fellow scientist Aretha, who’s working on a Girl Scout cooking badge, and polar-opposite Ben, who seems to live largely for bacon (even in brownies). Tasked with cooking his family’s supper for the foreseeable future, Phineas comes to understand—and to explain to readers—some of the scientific principles of cooking, including how yeast and baking soda make foods rise. What he’s less able to make sense of is why class bully Evan has suddenly focused on him, strong-arming him into cooking brownies for him almost every day—or else. With few viable options, Phineas does what any good scientist would; he attempts to study Evan’s behavior—with unexpected results that offer both insight and a resource for kids dealing with their own bullies. Unlike previous Phineas stories, this one lacks science experiments, but with new information about how some aspects of cooking work, readers could develop their own. McDaniels’ softly shaded illustrations are attractive and numerous, but they don’t always quite match with descriptions in the text.
Phineas, good-humored and insightful in his believable first-person voice, once again provides a pertinent, easy-to-read tale for grade schoolers. (Fiction. 7-11)Pub Date: Nov. 4, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4814-0099-2
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: Sept. 2, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2014
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Very, very funny.
Iggy finds that trying to be good is a possible recipe for disaster.
Iggy Frangi, a 9-year-old fourth grader first introduced in The Best of Iggy (2020), is not particularly adept at anticipating adverse outcomes, and his analysis after things go wrong is not especially accurate. He’s more of a doer than a dreamer. “Mostly Iggy gets in trouble. He does Thing 1, and then Thing 2 happens, and then, unfortunately, Thing 3 happens too.” In a wry direct address, the narrator/apologist affirms that Iggy will not be transformed, that this is not about a kid who is “better at the end than he was in the beginning”—not “about a kid who plants flowers by the side of the road.” Thing 1: Iggy, who appears White, and two of his best friends, Diego, who has brown skin, and Arch, who appears Black, discover a creative use for gardening tape. As a result of Thing 1, Thing 2 happens: Iggy accidently clobbers (but doesn’t permanently damage) an elderly White teacher with a basketball. Thing 2 leads to Thing 3: a spectacular and, as it turns out, literal face-plant, “one of the best things that ever happened” in Iggy’s life. Iggy wouldn’t hesitate to do it all over again, and his fans will be the richer for it. Ricks’ sketch illustrations feature lighthearted diagrams and cartoon interpretations of Iggy’s thoughts and misadventures.
Very, very funny. (Fiction. 7-10)Pub Date: Oct. 6, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-984813-33-6
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2020
1. Fresh. 2. Fun. 3. Entertaining.
When fifth-grader Andromeda moves from Brooklyn to a small town, she must deal with all of the issues a move like that could create.
She’s pretty sure she caused the move by accidentally revealing to her school principal that she didn’t live in the correct school district. Her older brother, Ted, blames her for his loneliness now that they’ve arrived in tiny Clover Gap. Her parents, apartment dwellers, have lots to learn about maintaining a house. Annie is sure that she should conceal her fabulous memory from her new classmates and does everything she can to melt into the background. New classmate Zora reaches out to Annie, but that leaves Zora’s other friend, Amelia, feeling angry, vindictive, and very unwelcoming. (Zora is also one of the only black characters in both the book and Clover Gap, a fact that is addressed matter-of-factly and with sensitivity.) Meanwhile, Annie’s best friend from the city gradually loses touch with her. All of these deftly interrelated plotlines are related in the lists that Annie keeps—lists of just about everything—and it’s these, and the fun twist they create, that elevate the tale over the pack, adding an amusing dimension to a well-worked trope. Annie’s slightly tongue-in-cheek voice, revealed in the lists and occasional narrative paragraphs, breathes life into the many characters around her, adding believability.
1. Fresh. 2. Fun. 3. Entertaining. (Fiction. 8-11)Pub Date: May 29, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5247-6509-5
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Feb. 18, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2018
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