An earnest and sometimes inspiring story of an extraordinary middle schooler.
A debut middle-grade novel about a boy, a blog and a mission.
Marco Polo Blackberry is just another student at Benjamin Franklin Middle School near Chicago—or is he? Marco is interested in the stock market, so he invests a bit of money into a secret account at a brokerage firm his father uses, and bam: He makes $10,000. After chatting with his network of pals around the globe via his blog, he learns about the problems of civil war and starvation in Africa. When Hakim, an African friend of one of his pals, begs for help for his hungry, dying people, Marco snaps into action, leveraging his $10,000 against the corn market and turning it into $500,000. Can he use his newfound earnings to help Hakim and his villagers, or will he be too late? The plot of Heller’s debut novel has potential, but it’s dragged down by too many secondary characters. The rambling story has the structure of an overwrought Rube Goldberg gizmo, and many, many pieces must fall into place before it reaches its climax. That said, Marco is pretty rad for a middle schooler—a millennial Ferris Bueller—and although he’s just a bit smart-alecky, his voice is spot-on for a kid of his age and intelligence. Many other authors have used the framing device of a child’s blog, and, in many instances, they use it incorrectly. Unfortunately, such is the case here: Although it’s charming to think that a child could create his own blog and network of international friends, he would have to be a very serious programmer to pull it off. Also, although Marco’s stock market adventures are among the best parts of the book, the description of how the grain and corn markets work may go over younger readers’ heads. However, Marco is an excellent role model for kids, and this book shows that one person can indeed make a difference in the lives of others.
An earnest and sometimes inspiring story of an extraordinary middle schooler.Pub Date: Feb. 16, 2010
ISBN: 978-1502556356
Page Count: 312
Publisher: Vico Publishing
Review Posted Online: Dec. 17, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Easy to read and mildly enjoyable, best for kids learning to read on their own.
A rhyming, songlike book of illustrated short stories for kids to read aloud.
In this collection of bedtime stories, children and animals learn to work together as a team, to treat their mothers with respect, and how to relax when they’re stressed out. Davis presents the 10 stories as poems, some of which are written in stanza form; the repetition, spelled-out words—“It’s my home that completes me. H-O-M-E, HOME”—and abundance of exclamation points help make them good for kids to read aloud with their parents. For instance, in “Row with me,” a poem about finding friends to help row a boat with, Davis writes: “We all row so well. We all yelled, ‘hurray!’ / The bell sounded off as tingles and jingles! How great! / at the finish line our mates row to go and go. / We won the race with a ho ho ho hi ho!!!” A singsong quality to the writing makes it flow easily, and each story is very short, in either one or two columns on a single page—an ideal length for reading a few before bed. A colorful illustration faces each story and helps explain the text, which could be helpful for young children trying to understand the book themselves. Some of the stories have a clear, well-outlined plot, such as “Moody Blues”: “Those moody, moody blues showed up too. / Sweetheart too much fretting is upsetting. / Don’t feel sad and mad that it upset you?! You upset me too! / You can’t let those moody, moody blues come over you.” Other stories, however, such as “Beautiful Blue Diamond,” about a ballerina getting a new “Bluetifull blue” ring and twirling about, don’t have much of a plot or enough to capture the imagination of young readers. Kids looking for engaging stories might not be satisfied here, but those learning to sound out words and to read on their own will appreciate the rhymes and silly phrases.
Easy to read and mildly enjoyable, best for kids learning to read on their own.Pub Date: Nov. 27, 2013
ISBN: 978-1493126743
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Xlibris
Review Posted Online: April 16, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A charming tale of space-based adventure.
Debut author Sees delivers an exuberant YA sci-fi novel.
Seventeen-year-old Ree Lindbergh is part of the 300-person crew of the starship Omega Centauri, patrolling the edge of the Milky Way galaxy. Their mission is to prevent further hostilities between humans and the shape-shifting Bufoanthroids from the neighboring Andromeda galaxy. Although Ree is happy enough spending her days in the company of her best friend, Zac, and dreaming of one day seeing the planet Earth, she’s still troubled. Every night she has nightmares about her dead mother, who was killed by Bufoanthroids on the day Ree was born. When Zac and his ship vanish, Ree undertakes a dangerous rescue mission. As she unravels mysteries and faces dangers, she learns the truth about her own past—and discovers feelings she’s never had before. The novel’s characters are well-developed and true to their types; Ree is a very relatable Everygirl with a far more interesting personality than, say, Twilight’s Bella Swan. Her first-person narration and dialogue are clear and entertaining (“[T]he familiar smell of sweet saskatoon berries, tangy yet tart, reheated freeze-dried goodness, and hot, gooey pizza consumed my nostrils”). As befits a novel written by an educator, the prose is clean and professional; the action scenes are a bit sparse, but the conclusion of the story promises more to come. The novel’s worldbuilding is pure, glorious space opera in the classic style: Starships warp away to patrol and invade entire galaxies, and characters listen to voice-activated radio broadcasts while discussing the history of the Worldwide Space Federation. There’s enough detail to establish the setting and flesh out the story, but the author leaves it open-ended enough that sequels are almost mandatory. Sees demonstrates a quiet sense of fun to go along with all the YA adventure and romance; notably, one particular line of dialogue (“If you want to kiss a frog and hope he turns into a prince…then go ahead”) underlines a running pun throughout the novel: The Bufoanthroids’ name appears to be a combination of the Latin bufo (“toad”) and anthropo (“human”).
A charming tale of space-based adventure.Pub Date: March 17, 2014
ISBN: 978-0615930596
Page Count: 412
Publisher: Centauri Publishing Group
Review Posted Online: June 5, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
