Cheerfully fun and lighthearted, with a relatable protagonist.
Buddy’s first day of second grade is filled with unwanted surprises.
Buddy Finn-Lee had thought that his teacher would be bird-watcher Jabari, but the new teacher, Ms. Maple, is someone no one yet knows. During roll call, nobody responds when Ms. Maple asks if Bea is present. Buddy’s pal Joey’s joke from first grade, saving a seat all year for a classmate who never appeared, seems worth repeating, so Buddy is slightly miffed when Bea turns up, late, full voiced, clad nearly all in pink, and ready to explain the blood on her shoe. (An injury from an encounter with a table: “Don’t worry. I’ve had stitches before. A lot of times!”) Bea, impulsive where Buddy is cautious, focuses on Buddy’s cowlick, trying to plaster it down with spit and later with mayonnaise. She is bold and resourceful, finding the custodian when Buddy gets stuck trying to hide between two urinals. Will Buddy ever adjust to his new class? Nicely pitched to the audience, this chapter book is full of the singular, buzzy energy and earnestness of second graders along with appealingly broad but not chaotic humor. Ms. Maple’s telling the students about the name her Filipino immigrant parents gave her makes for a poignant moment. Buddy presents Asian, like one of his two dads, in the lively cartoon artwork, while Bea is light-skinned, and the class is diverse.
Cheerfully fun and lighthearted, with a relatable protagonist. (Chapter book. 6-9)Pub Date: July 11, 2023
ISBN: 9781682635346
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Peachtree
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2023
Make space for this clever blend of science and self-realization.
If Pluto can’t be a planet—then what is he?
Having been a regular planet for “the better part of forever,” Pluto is understandably knocked out of orbit by his sudden exclusion. With Charon and his four other moons in tow he sets off in search of a new identity. Unfortunately, that only spins him into further gloom, as he doesn’t have a tail like his friend Halley’s comet, is too big to join Ida and the other asteroids, and feels disinclined to try to crash into Earth like meteoroids Gem and Persi. Then, just as he’s about to plunge into a black hole of despair, an encounter with a whole quartet of kindred spheroids led by Eris rocks his world…and a follow-up surprise party thrown by an apologetic Saturn (“Dwarf planet has a nice RING to it”) and the other seven former colleagues literally puts him “over the moon.” Demmer gives all the heavenly bodies big eyes (some, including the feminine Saturn, with long lashes) and, on occasion, short arms along with distinctive identifying colors or markings. Dressing the troublemaking meteoroids in do-rags and sunglasses sounds an off note. Without mentioning that the reclassification is still controversial, Wade closes with a (somewhat) straighter account of Pluto’s current official status and the reasons for it.
Make space for this clever blend of science and self-realization. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-68446-004-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Capstone Young Readers
Review Posted Online: April 24, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2018
Superficially appealing; much less so upon closer examination.
When Rabbit’s unbridled mania for collecting carrots leaves him unable to sleep in his cozy burrow, other animals offer to put him up.
But to Rabbit, their homes are just more storage space for carrots: Tortoise’s overstuffed shell cracks open; the branch breaks beneath Bird’s nest; Squirrel’s tree trunk topples over; and Beaver’s bulging lodge collapses at the first rainstorm. Impelled by guilt and the epiphany that “carrots weren’t for collecting—they were for SHARING!” Rabbit invites his newly homeless friends into his intact, and inexplicably now-roomy, burrow for a crunchy banquet. This could be read (with some effort) as a lightly humorous fable with a happy ending, and Hudson’s depictions of carrot-strewn natural scenes, of Rabbit as a plush bunny, and of the other animals as, at worst, mildly out of sorts support that take. Still, the insistent way Rabbit keeps forcing himself on his friends and the magnitude of the successive disasters may leave even less-reflective readers disturbed. Moreover, as Rabbit is never seen actually eating a carrot, his stockpiling looks a lot like the sort of compulsive hoarding that, in humans, is regarded as a mental illness.
Superficially appealing; much less so upon closer examination. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Feb. 11, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-62370-638-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Capstone Young Readers
Review Posted Online: Dec. 7, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2015
© 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.
