Busy and insubstantial plot plus only mildly amusing illustrations add up to very little.
“Walter isn’t a bad boy.” That’s what Walter’s mother always says…and she has to say it a lot.
Young Walter, self-named Clint McCool, never seems to do the right thing. He’s got a magic hat with buttons to help him think of good ideas, translate what adults say, and even change his face so he will not look like a smart aleck—but it doesn’t always work for him. With a plot that moves faster than Walter’s brain, the book takes readers along as he tries to find an escapade. His friends M.L. and Marco would like to play with him, but they aren’t as willing to risk getting into trouble as Walter is. His insistence on involving himself in a movie being shot in the neighborhood seems to be just another one of his bad ideas. As events escalate, his friends simply give up on him. Who can blame them? Sometimes he seems downright unlikable. When his mom asks if he is listening, Walter thinks, “Actually, I’m not. If Mom wants me to, she should talk about something interesting.” Really? Interior black, white, and blue illustrations depict all characters with paper-white skin and Walter with light hair; Marco and M.L. both have dark hair (his closely cropped and hers curly), possibly cuing them as children of color.
Busy and insubstantial plot plus only mildly amusing illustrations add up to very little. (Fiction. 6-9)Pub Date: May 9, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-448-48754-0
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Grosset & Dunlap
Review Posted Online: Feb. 13, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An amusing combination of grade school frustrations and slightly screwball responses.
Aldeen cruises through life like a monster truck: She crashes into everyone and has little concern for how her take-no-prisoners attitude affects people. So when Aldeen invites Morgan to accompany her and her grandmother to Princesses On Ice and his mother says he has to go, he’s less than thrilled.
Immediately, the third-grader starts plotting ways to avoid the skating show; these reach an added level of desperation when his friend Charlie invites him to a monster-truck show that turns out to be at the same time as the dreaded skating show. Morgan attempts a variety of poorly thought-out schemes, including attempting to foist Aldeen’s invitation off on a classmate and trying to convince her that he has a disease that makes him secretly scared of watching skating. Morgan’s dad keeps advising him to “Man up” and deal with his misfortune, but in the end, Aldeen’s grandmother elects to take them to the truck show instead of the skating event, and it turns out to be…boring! Quirky illustrations, (including a funny and inviting cover that makes this an easy sell), simple text, and recognizable, even mildly suspenseful situations, all combine to make this a chuckle-inducing read for those just advancing into chapter books. Morgan’s own ice-skating misadventures further enhance the mix.
An amusing combination of grade school frustrations and slightly screwball responses. (Fiction. 6-9)Pub Date: March 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4595-0289-5
Page Count: 62
Publisher: Formac
Review Posted Online: Jan. 21, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2014
A title sure to attract ballet aficionados, with added appeal for its depiction of an adoptive family and a ballerina who...
This autobiographical title for newly independent readers will reward efforts with an inspiring story about ballerina Michaela DePrince’s life and passion for dance.
Orphaned as a young child in Sierra Leone, Michaela is a shy girl whose vitiligo causes a loss of pigmentation on parts of her body. This makes her an easy target for teasing, but another child at the orphanage, Mia, befriends her. Another bright spot occurs when she is transfixed by a magazine picture of a ballerina. When an American family adopts her and Mia, their new mother promises that they will study ballet. Michaela’s dreams come true, and she overcomes her shyness in order to perform as a ballerina. The narrative is broken up into chapters detailing her ongoing achievements, and difficult vocabulary is followed by parenthetical phonetic spellings to support decoding. Photographs document Michaela’s life, including images of her time in the orphanage and of her participation in a film entitled First Position, among other highlights. These are interspersed with illustrations that depict ballet positions and Michaela on stage and in class. At its heart is the core message that hard work and determination are the keys to making any dream come true.
A title sure to attract ballet aficionados, with added appeal for its depiction of an adoptive family and a ballerina who just happens to be black. (Early reader/memoir. 6-8)Pub Date: Oct. 14, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-385-75516-0
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Aug. 5, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
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