A vivid evocation of place and era rolling solidly on a bed of timeless values.
Climbing aboard a “train” to a better life, third grader Thelma joins other African American children on the walk to school.
Again drawing on family history, the author of Black-Eyed Peas and Hoghead Cheese (2022), illustrated by Steffi Walthall, reframes her mother Thelma’s childhood as a series of imagined train rides—first to a one-room school, then, in class, further on to dazzling destinations like Oz and Treasure Island and back in time to hear about Harriet Tubman and other heroes. On the way, Thelma learns that “Mr. Jim Crow” isn’t a mean man who has driven her aunt and uncle away from their Louisiana town to California but a set of discriminatory laws and customs. “Just keep riding that schooltrain,” her father says. But Thelma has one more train to board, the kind with wheels, when her father loses his job. On the platform, her teacher calms her worries about going to a new school in Los Angeles by handing her a book: “You have your ticket.” Morris uses tissue collage and digital finishing to create richly hued scenes of brown-skinned, actively posed adults and children in small-town settings with, often, train tracks visible in the background. In a long afterword well stocked with personal photos, Armand retraces both the metaphorical and actual journeys, filling in details about Jim Crow as well as the Great Migration and her family’s experience of them. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A vivid evocation of place and era rolling solidly on a bed of timeless values. (Historical picture book. 7-9)Pub Date: Jan. 3, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-338-76689-9
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A fitting farewell, still funny, acute, and positive in its view of human nature even in its 37th episode.
A long-running series reaches its closing chapters.
Having, as Kline notes in her warm valedictory acknowledgements, taken 30 years to get through second and third grade, Harry Spooger is overdue to move on—but not just into fourth grade, it turns out, as his family is moving to another town as soon as the school year ends. The news leaves his best friend, narrator “Dougo,” devastated…particularly as Harry doesn’t seem all that fussed about it. With series fans in mind, the author takes Harry through a sort of last-day-of-school farewell tour. From his desk he pulls a burned hot dog and other items that featured in past episodes, says goodbye to Song Lee and other classmates, and even (for the first time ever) leads Doug and readers into his house and memento-strewn room for further reminiscing. Of course, Harry isn’t as blasé about the move as he pretends, and eyes aren’t exactly dry when he departs. But hardly is he out of sight before Doug is meeting Mohammad, a new neighbor from Syria who (along with further diversifying a cast that began as mostly white but has become increasingly multiethnic over the years) will also be starting fourth grade at summer’s end, and planning a written account of his “horrible” buddy’s exploits. Finished illustrations not seen.
A fitting farewell, still funny, acute, and positive in its view of human nature even in its 37th episode. (Fiction. 7-9)Pub Date: Nov. 27, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-451-47963-1
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Sept. 16, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The story feels a bit contrived, but Ada will be a welcome addition to the small circle of science-loving girls in the...
Using science and technology, third-grader Ada Lace kicks off her new series by solving a mystery even with her leg in a cast.
Temporarily housebound after a badly executed bungee jump, Ada uses binoculars to document the ecosystem of her new neighborhood in San Francisco. She records her observations in a field journal, a project that intrigues new friend Nina, who lives nearby. When they see that Ms. Reed’s dog, Marguerite, is missing, they leap to the conclusion that it has been stolen. Nina does the legwork and Ada provides the technology for their search for the dognapper. Story-crafting takes a back seat to scene-setting in this series kickoff that introduces the major players. As part of the series formula, science topics and gadgetry are integrated into the stories and further explained in a “Behind the Science” afterword. This installment incorporates drones, a wireless camera, gecko gloves, and the Turing test as well as the concept of an ecosystem. There are no ethnic indicators in the text, but the illustrations reveal that Ada, her family, and bratty neighbor Milton are white; Nina appears to be Southeast Asian; and Mr. Peebles, an inventor who lives nearby, is black.
The story feels a bit contrived, but Ada will be a welcome addition to the small circle of science-loving girls in the chapter-book world. (Fiction. 7-9)Pub Date: Aug. 29, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4814-8599-9
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
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