A thoughtful and entertaining look at both sides of the bullying dynamic.
Two girls struggle with rivalries and self-acceptance in this debut middle-grade novel.
Even before the school year begins, fifth grader Hannah Hardy has been plotting revenge against her classmate Meg Greene for a pointed remark she made last spring break. Hannah also looks down on Meg for her messy hair and unfashionable clothes. Hannah’s goal is to make Meg “sad and lonely” by getting her friend Alexis Martinez to drop her through the tempting prospect of entry into the bully’s popular group. Hannah’s scheme works, but that’s not enough when Meg annoys her further on the first day of school by noticing geese nesting in the courtyard. The school makes the area off-limits, foiling Hannah’s plans to sit on the courtyard’s benches at recess. Hannah steps up her bullying; she calls Meg “Goose Girl,” a name that catches on. But Hannah doesn’t have things all her own way. First, classmate Jack Eddy defends Meg, and teachers help her. Hannah gets in trouble for her behavior, and Meg rescues a gosling that she names Garrett. To Hannah’s disgust, Meg starts becoming more popular than she is. After a showdown, both girls come to recognize that they have opportunities for self-improvement. In his book, Suhre uses alternating point-of-view chapters, each with an authentic voice, to give insights into both the bully’s and the victim’s perspectives. For example, Meg comes to admit that not brushing her hair or wearing clean clothes “made me a bigger target.” Hannah, it develops, has several reasons for her behavior and has some admirable gifts as well. Realistically, the girls aren’t meant to be best pals, but a mature detente is possible. In addition, the goose family provides a nice metaphor for growing up, with fledglings learning to spread their wings.
A thoughtful and entertaining look at both sides of the bullying dynamic.Pub Date: Nov. 27, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-73559-870-3
Page Count: 172
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Fast-paced and plot-driven.
In his latest, prolific author Gratz takes on Hitler’s Olympic Games.
When 13-year-old American gymnast Evie Harris arrives in Berlin to compete in the 1936 Olympic Games, she has one goal: stardom. If she can bring home a gold medal like her friend, the famous equestrian-turned-Hollywood-star Mary Brooks, she might be able to lift her family out of their Dust Bowl poverty. But someone slips a strange note under Evie’s door, and soon she’s dodging Heinz Fischer, the Hitler Youth member assigned to host her, and meeting strangers who want to make use of her gymnastic skills—to rob a bank. As the games progress, Evie begins to see the moral issues behind their sparkling facade—the antisemitism and racism inherent in Nazi ideology and the way Hitler is using the competition to support and promote these beliefs. And she also agrees to rob the bank. Gratz goes big on the Mission Impossible–style heist, which takes center stage over the actual competitions, other than Jesse Owens’ famous long jump. A lengthy and detailed author’s note provides valuable historical context, including places where Gratz adapted the facts for storytelling purposes (although there’s no mention of the fact that before 1952, Olympic equestrian sports were limited to male military officers). With an emphasis on the plot, many of the characters feel defined primarily by how they’re suffering under the Nazis, such as the fictional diver Ursula Diop, who was involuntarily sterilized for being biracial.
Fast-paced and plot-driven. (Historical fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9781338736106
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2025
The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often...
A successful juvenile by the beloved New Yorker writer portrays a farm episode with an imaginative twist that makes a poignant, humorous story of a pig, a spider and a little girl.
Young Fern Arable pleads for the life of runt piglet Wilbur and gets her father to sell him to a neighbor, Mr. Zuckerman. Daily, Fern visits the Zuckermans to sit and muse with Wilbur and with the clever pen spider Charlotte, who befriends him when he is lonely and downcast. At the news of Wilbur's forthcoming slaughter, campaigning Charlotte, to the astonishment of people for miles around, spins words in her web. "Some Pig" comes first. Then "Terrific"—then "Radiant". The last word, when Wilbur is about to win a show prize and Charlotte is about to die from building her egg sac, is "Humble". And as the wonderful Charlotte does die, the sadness is tempered by the promise of more spiders next spring.
The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often informative as amusing, and the whole tenor of appealing wit and pathos will make fine entertainment for reading aloud, too.Pub Date: Oct. 15, 1952
ISBN: 978-0-06-026385-0
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1952
PERSPECTIVES
SEEN & HEARD
© 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.
