Beryl knows she will love, love, love her new baby sister, certain to be as sweet as a chocolate babka. But when her father calls her and her little brother Sam from the hospital and happily shouts “It’s a boy!” she faces her worst nightmare: “Two baby brothers. Double trouble.” This funny, heartwarming early chapter book about embracing (and rejecting) a new baby in the house has shades of Kevin Henkes’s Julius, the Baby of the World and a charm all its own. As Beryl concocts a strategy to make baby Zachary disappear, Uncle Morty conjures some tricks of his own to help his niece and nephew accept the small intruder as a member of the family, a long line of “gorgeous genius” babies. In the end, Beryl decides she doesn’t want to make baby Zach disappear after all. Chess’s soft, rounded, dePaola-style illustrations are as warm, comical, and appealing as the story. A detailed Eastern European recipe for chocolate babka tops off an already enticing offering for the sibling-challenged. (Illustrated fiction. 6-9)
Pub Date: Sept. 20, 2004
ISBN: 0-618-23489-6
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2004
Summertime brings three new adventures for Beezy (Beezy, 1997, etc.) and her pals in the third title of this easy-reader series from McDonald (who reviews for this publication). Short chapters with whimsical illustrations transport readers from Beezy’s front porch to the blackberry thickets near her grandmother’s garden, to a neighborhood baseball diamond, with each location serving as the setting for old-fashioned fun and frolic. Poydar’s animated illustrations artfully capture the antics of Beezy and her friends, whether they’re cracking nuts and solving riddles, capturing a snake, or playing ball with the help of a unicycle. Readers will relish the excitement Beezy finds around every corner. (Fiction. 6-9)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-531-30085-4
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Orchard
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1998
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A family gathers to remember one of their own: a brother, an uncle, a mate, a son. Uncle Ron has died of AIDS (obviously, though it is never spelled out), and his mother, brother and sister-in-law, niece and nephew, and companion are sewing a panel for the great national memorial quilt. Lauren, the niece, narrates as the assembled recall Ron fondly while they pick and choose various items to sew on the panel. The sting of his death is particularly acute for Lauren; her uncle treated her as an adult, but knew how to throw his great protective arms around her—he was her teacher and her friend. Heartache a mile wide runs through this story, named in Lauren, hinted at in the brother, forceful in an old companion, and most apparent in Lauren’s grandmother, with clues that she will have to suffer alone (“Grandpa hadn’t come after Uncle Ron’s memorial service either,” and “ ‘Grandpa says he doesn’t know how to sew,’ “). The ending—the somber mood dissolves as everyone dances—feels contrived, but that doesn’t negate the value of this book, which allows readers to explore, as they so choose or not, related issues. In his first picture book, Hills’s soft-focus artwork serves mostly as a buffer to all the sharp emotions of the text. (Picture book. 7-9)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-689-81592-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 1998
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