A fresh take on a topic that has seen plenty of ink.
The Newbold children introduce a friend to a favorite game in Letts’ (What’s Behind the Curtain?, 2013) children’s book, suitable for ages 9 and up.
Twelve-year-old Chance Newbold starts his Saturday morning sleepily, following a late night of Xbox and an unwanted morning wake-up call from the family cat. It doesn’t get much better—there’s laundry to do, no milk for his cereal and the possibility that the school gossip might post something embarrassing about Chance online. But when his three sisters congregate in the kitchen, along with his oldest sister’s boyfriend, Jake, and Jake’s best friend, Kelly, things start to turn around. After all, the Newbolds can tell Kelly about their family pastime, the “Should I?” game. The setup is simple: For example, “Should I eat an apple or should I eat an orange?” middle sister Sophia asks. “You choose,” 7-year-old Molly replies. The Newbolds explain to Kelly that the game is about actions and accountability, responsibility, consequences and rewards; “it’s thinking…really thinking…about why you choose to do what you do,” Chance says. The conversation turns to an event years ago, when some mean children almost caused the death of a boy with a nerve-impairing hereditary disorder. Bullying, too, is a choice a person can make—or decide not to. Letts’ book is a quick, fun read, with characters who are great role models for young readers, and not just because they ask challenging questions; they also volunteer, compost, and only use the Internet for research. Although it touches on tragedy, the story is far from schmaltzy and is instead cleareyed and frank. It also avoids moralizing, even though there is a very clear takeaway message. A series of pages at the end, with blank lines separated by “or,” allows readers to create their own “Should I?” games.
A fresh take on a topic that has seen plenty of ink.Pub Date: April 8, 2014
ISBN: 978-0988933330
Page Count: 122
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Sept. 23, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
If Rotten Ralph were a boy instead of a cat, he might be Joey, the hyperactive hero of Gantos's new book, except that Joey is never bad on purpose. In the first-person narration, it quickly becomes clear that he can't help himself; he's so wound up that he not only practically bounces off walls, he literally swallows his house key (which he wears on a string around his neck and which he pull back up, complete with souvenirs of the food he just ate). Gantos's straightforward view of what it's like to be Joey is so honest it hurts. Joey has been abandoned by his alcoholic father and, for a time, by his mother (who also drinks); his grandmother, just as hyperactive as he is, abuses Joey while he's in her care. One mishap after another leads Joey first from his regular classroom to special education classes and then to a special education school. With medication, counseling, and positive reinforcement, Joey calms down. Despite a lighthearted title and jacket painting, the story is simultaneously comic and horrific; Gantos takes readers right inside a human whirlwind where the ride is bumpy and often frightening, especially for Joey. But a river of compassion for the characters runs through the pages, not only for Joey but for his overextended mom and his usually patient, always worried (if only for their safety) teachers. Mature readers will find this harsh tale softened by unusual empathy and leavened by genuinely funny events. (Fiction. 11-13)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-374-33664-4
Page Count: 154
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1998
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
It starts off innocently enough, with principal Walter Russ asking artist Florence Waters to sell him a drinking fountain for the Dry Creek Middle School. But art and bureaucracy are about as different as, well, flood and drought, and this book pits such opposites with hilarious results. Town villains Dee Eel (president of Dry Creek Water Company) and Sally Mander (chief executive of the Dry Creek Swimming Pool) absconded with the town's water supply, turning what used to be Spring Creek into Dry Creek. This all gets uncovered by ``Sam N.'s fifth-grade class,'' who is doing a project on the history of the town. What makes this tale an unequivocal delight is that it's told through letter, memos, newspaper clippings, school announcements, and inventive black-and-white drawings; even less-skilled readers will be drawn in by the element of perusing ``other people's mail'' to find out why Spring Creek went dry, and to decode the water-related names of the characters. Florence and her intriguing attitude and art win over the class, Sam, and even the stuffy principal—how she does it is part of a tale overflowing with imagination and fun. (Fiction. 9-13)
Pub Date: April 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-380-97538-6
Page Count: 138
Publisher: Avon/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 1997
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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