Set in New York City, this is a highly entertaining, funny, poignant modern fairy tale of a lonely adolescent who receives the sudden gift of popularity. Wilma is at the end of the most excruciating eighth-grade year. Her existence defines unpopular; not only is she friendless, her clueless Language Arts teacher has read aloud a pointofview assignment in which Wilma spends a day as her Airedale Terrier, Reggie. She describes in loving detail the joys of doghood, waiting anxiously for “Beloved Wilma” to come home, lifting a leg to pee, and sniffing a Dalmatian's rear. That's the last straw. Wilma is constantly taunted. Anonymous woofs and snuffles follow her down the school corridor. Suzanne, a particularly nasty classmate, takes every opportunity to ask if Wilma has sniffed an anus lately. One morning while dreading yet another day of isolation, Wilma gives up her subway seat to an elderly woman who looks a bit faint. In return, the woman grants Wilma one wish. She wishes to be the most popular student at her school, Claverford. It is only after the spell begins to work that Wilma realizes her error. The spell will only be in effect at Claverford until graduation, which is only three weeks away. Levine (Ella Enchanted, 1997) captures the daytoday lives of tortured teens, their language, their anxieties, and their joys while spinning a light tale with deeper meaning. (Fiction. 10-13)
Pub Date: May 31, 2000
ISBN: 0-06-027900-1
Page Count: 208
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2000
Problem-solving through perseverance and friendship is the real win in this deeply smart and inspiring story.
Leaving Brooklyn behind, Black math-whiz and puzzle lover Bree starts a new life in Florida, where she’ll be tossed into the deep end in more ways than one. Keeping her head above water may be the trickiest puzzle yet.
While her dad is busy working and training in IT, Bree struggles at first to settle into Enith Brigitha Middle School, largely due to the school’s preoccupation with swimming—from the accomplishments of its namesake, a Black Olympian from Curaçao, to its near victory at the state swimming championships. But Bree can’t swim. To illustrate her anxiety around this fact, the graphic novel’s bright colors give way to gray thought bubbles with thick, darkened outlines expressing Bree’s deepest fears and doubts. This poignant visual crowds some panels just as anxious feelings can crowd the thoughts of otherwise star students like Bree. Ultimately, learning to swim turns out to be easy enough with the help of a kind older neighbor—a Black woman with a competitive swimming past of her own as well as a rich and bittersweet understanding of Black Americans’ relationship with swimming—who explains to Bree how racist obstacles of the past can become collective anxiety in the present. To her surprise, Bree, with her newfound water skills, eventually finds herself on the school’s swim team, navigating competition, her anxiety, and new, meaningful relationships.
Problem-solving through perseverance and friendship is the real win in this deeply smart and inspiring story. (Graphic fiction. 10-13)Pub Date: May 17, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-06-305677-0
Page Count: 256
Publisher: HarperAlley
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2022
The novel’s dryness is mitigated in part by its exploration of immigrant identity, xenophobia, and hate crimes.
Seventh graders Karina Chopra and Chris Daniels live in Houston, Texas, and although they are next-door neighbors, they have different interests and their paths rarely cross.
In fact, Karina, whose family is Indian, doesn’t want to be friends with Chris, whose family is white, because the boys he hangs out with are mean to her. Things change when Karina’s immigrant paternal grandfather, Papa, moves in with Karina’s family. Papa begins tutoring Chris in math, and, as a result, Chris and Karina begin spending time with each other. Karina even comes to realize that Chris is not at all like the rest of his friends and that she should give him a second chance. One day, when Karina, Papa, and Chris are walking home from school, something terrible happens: They are assaulted by a stranger who calls Papa a Muslim terrorist, and he is badly injured. The children find themselves wanting to speak out for Papa and for other first-generation Americans like him. Narrated by Karina and Chris in alternate chapters, Bajaj’s novel gives readers varied and valuable perspectives of what it means to be first- and third-generation Indian Americans in an increasingly diverse nation. Unfortunately, however, Bajaj’s characters are quite bland, and the present-tense narrative voices of the preteen protagonists lack both distinction and authenticity.
The novel’s dryness is mitigated in part by its exploration of immigrant identity, xenophobia, and hate crimes. (Fiction. 10-13)Pub Date: Aug. 27, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-525-51724-5
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Nancy Paulsen Books
Review Posted Online: May 25, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2019
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