An easy-to-read, heartwarming lesson in trust-building.
A homeless dog transforms a neighborhood.
When a skinny, filthy dog suddenly appears, next-door neighbors Sam and Katie immediately notice. They watch her get shooed out of the Wilson sisters’ flower garden. They see the Tracy twins (the biggest, meanest kids in their grade) throwing rocks and chasing her on their bikes. As Sam and Katie search everywhere for the dog, the Tracy twins are also looking for her. Discovering the dog asleep under a table Sam’s father just painted blue, Sam and Katie are inexplicably spurred to paint a blue daisy on her back, prompting neighbors to take notice and call her Blue Daisy. Sam and Katie feel Blue Daisy should be their dog since they’re “the ones who like her best,” but they also feel guilty about painting her. They don’t understand why Blue Daisy prefers the Tracy twins, but those mean kids have somehow earned her trust. In alternating voices, Sam and Katie tell the story of how Blue Daisy finds a home and how they find new friends, with Sam speaking in verse, Katie in prose in a different typeset; speech in both portions is indicated by italics rather than quotation marks. Black-and-white illustrations capture key events and depict most core characters with pale skin; a recipe section includes a couple of Blue Daisy’s favorite treats.
An easy-to-read, heartwarming lesson in trust-building. (recipes; author’s note) (Fiction. 7-10)Pub Date: March 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-8234-4414-4
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Margaret Ferguson/Holiday House
Review Posted Online: Oct. 12, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2019
It’s hard to argue with success, but guides that actually do the math will be more useful to budding capitalists.
How to raise money for a coveted poster: put your friends to work!
John, founder of the FUBU fashion line and a Shark Tank venture capitalist, offers a self-referential blueprint for financial success. Having only half of the $10 he needs for a Minka J poster, Daymond forks over $1 to buy a plain T-shirt, paints a picture of the pop star on it, sells it for $5, and uses all of his cash to buy nine more shirts. Then he recruits three friends to decorate them with his design and help sell them for an unspecified amount (from a conveniently free and empty street-fair booth) until they’re gone. The enterprising entrepreneur reimburses himself for the shirts and splits the remaining proceeds, which leaves him with enough for that poster as well as a “brand-new business book,” while his friends express other fiscal strategies: saving their share, spending it all on new art supplies, or donating part and buying a (math) book with the rest. (In a closing summation, the author also suggests investing in stocks, bonds, or cryptocurrency.) Though Miles cranks up the visual energy in her sparsely detailed illustrations by incorporating bright colors and lots of greenbacks, the actual advice feels a bit vague. Daymond is Black; most of the cast are people of color. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
It’s hard to argue with success, but guides that actually do the math will be more useful to budding capitalists. (Picture book. 7-9)Pub Date: March 21, 2023
ISBN: 978-0-593-56727-2
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2023
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
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