by Jackson Pearce ; illustrated by Tuesday Mourning ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 6, 2018
A structurally sound story about challenging assumptions and responsible engineering.
Ellie and her friends from Ellie, Engineer (2018) return for more mishaps while proving anyone can be an engineer.
Ellie, Kit, and Toby use a pulley to build an elevator for Ellie’s workshop, both so they won’t have to carry supplies up the ladder and so the workshop will be accessible to people like Ellie’s grandmother and a school friend who uses a wheelchair (the latter is mentioned but doesn’t appear in the story). Unfortunately, the design fails, dumping and shattering its massive (and borrowed-without-permission) pickle-jar payload. Ellie’s punishment consists of helping elderly neighbor Mrs. Curran for a week. With Kit’s help, Ellie plans all sorts of inventions she could make to help a grandmother type only to find that stereotype-breaking Mrs. Curran’s an appearance-focused doll artist who does not bake cookies and who has sophisticated tastes. When Toby joins the girls at Mrs. Curran’s house, the team starts to use their engineering know-how to make repairs and improvements—but though she’s appreciative, Mrs. Curran can’t wrap her head around the fact that Ellie is the brains of the operation, and she defaults to crediting Toby. To help Mrs. Curran realize that girls can be engineers, they scheme to show her she can be one herself, with an improved elevator design to help her carry her art supplies up to her studio. One last twist complicates their plan before the happy ending. The thematic parallel that compares limited expectations of both girls and the elderly works well, but it isn’t subtle. The cast seems to default to white.
A structurally sound story about challenging assumptions and responsible engineering. (guide to simple machines) (Fiction. 7-11)Pub Date: Nov. 6, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-68119-521-6
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: Aug. 13, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2018
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by Daymond John ; illustrated by Nicole Miles ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 21, 2023
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
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by Suzy Kline ; illustrated by Amy Wummer ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 27, 2018
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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by Suzy Kline & illustrated by Frank Remkiewicz
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