A compassionate, witty, affirmation that it’s OK to speak up.
Ortega presents the story of a precocious young girl on a journey to find her voice and heal from the past in this middle-grade novel.
Dominican-American Isla Delgado lives in a cramped city apartment with her pregnant Mami, her stepfather, Daddy Leon, and her younger brother, Devon. Isla tends to keep her problems to herself—and she’s got plenty of them, including struggling with her fourth-grade schoolwork and trying to repress memories of the abuse she suffered as a five-year-old at the hands of her Papi’s former wife, Mrs. Maria. Now Papi has remarried again, to a woman named Francheska (“Mrs. Franchy”), and Isla must unwillingly go to live with them for six months. Inspired by a scary movie she wasn’t supposed to have seen (as well as the theory that all “fiction stems from truth”), Isla enlists the help of her best friend, Evelissé, and a bully-turned-friend, Melissa, to prove that Mrs. Franchy is an actual witch. But the more she gets to know Mrs. Franchy, the more confused about “good” and “evil” Isla becomes. The author does a phenomenal job tackling the painful subject of child abuse and its consequences. A pre-story section discusses the sensitive topics covered (such as abuse, food restriction, the pandemic, and even Santa Claus), as well as suggestions for adults on how to speak to their children about these subjects. Isla’s imagination bursts off the pages, whether she’s envisioning her mother as an angry fire-breathing dragon or suspecting that Papi’s and Mrs. Franchy’s dog, John, might actually be a kid trapped in a dog’s body. Ortega masterfully conveys the ways kids think (“Words buzz inside my head. All the words. But then it’s like a traffic jam. A word traffic jam in my head”) and feel, making it a joy to follow Isla on her journey toward overcoming trauma and expressing herself. The bold full-color illustrations by Vesle are a delightful addition.
A compassionate, witty, affirmation that it’s OK to speak up.Pub Date: Jan. 24, 2023
ISBN: 9798986982663
Page Count: 220
Publisher: Have a Cup of Johanny
Review Posted Online: April 20, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Alert readers will find the implicit morals: know your audience, mostly, but also never underestimate the power of “rock”...
The theme of persistence (for better or worse) links four tales of magic, trickery, and near disasters.
Lachenmeyer freely borrows familiar folkloric elements, subjecting them to mildly comical twists. In the nearly wordless “Hip Hop Wish,” a frog inadvertently rubs a magic lamp and finds itself saddled with an importunate genie eager to shower it with inappropriate goods and riches. In the title tale, an increasingly annoyed music-hating witch transforms a persistent minstrel into a still-warbling cow, horse, sheep, goat, pig, duck, and rock in succession—then is horrified to catch herself humming a tune. Athesius the sorcerer outwits Warthius, a rival trying to steal his spells via a parrot, by casting silly ones in Ig-pay Atin-lay in the third episode, and in the finale, a painter’s repeated efforts to create a flattering portrait of an ogre king nearly get him thrown into a dungeon…until he suddenly understands what an ogre’s idea of “flattering” might be. The narratives, dialogue, and sound effects leave plenty of elbow room in Blocker’s big, brightly colored panels for the expressive animal and human(ish) figures—most of the latter being light skinned except for the golden genie, the blue ogre, and several people of color in the “Sorcerer’s New Pet.”
Alert readers will find the implicit morals: know your audience, mostly, but also never underestimate the power of “rock” music. (Graphic short stories. 8-10)Pub Date: June 18, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-59643-750-0
Page Count: 112
Publisher: First Second
Review Posted Online: April 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2019
An inspirational exploration of caring among parent, teacher and child—one of Grimes’ best. (Poetry. 8-12)
In this delightfully spare narrative in verse, Coretta Scott King Award–winning Grimes examines a marriage’s end from the perspective of a child.
Set mostly in the wake of her father’s departure, only-child Gabby reveals with moving clarity in these short first-person poems the hardship she faces relocating with her mother and negotiating the further loss of a good friend while trying to adjust to a new school. Gabby has always been something of a dreamer, but when she begins study in her new class, she finds her thoughts straying even more. She admits: “Some words / sit still on the page / holding a story steady. / … / But other words have wings / that wake my daydreams. / They … / tickle my imagination, / and carry my thoughts away.” To illustrate Gabby’s inner wanderings, Grimes’ narrative breaks from the present into episodic bursts of vivid poetic reminiscence. Luckily, Gabby’s new teacher recognizes this inability to focus to be a coping mechanism and devises a daily activity designed to harness daydreaming’s creativity with a remarkably positive result for both Gabby and the entire class. Throughout this finely wrought narrative, Grimes’ free verse is tight, with perfect breaks of line and effortless shifts from reality to dream states and back.
An inspirational exploration of caring among parent, teacher and child—one of Grimes’ best. (Poetry. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-59078-985-8
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Wordsong/Boyds Mills
Review Posted Online: July 16, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2013
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