Amusing and satisfying.
Sixth grade wannabe astronaut Maple McNutt explores athletics.
In this second installment of Maple’s confessional, doodle-filled journals, much remains the same: Maple continues to idolize astronaut Jackie Grand (a woman who ran a marathon “IN SPACE!”), Maple’s mother still does PR for NASA, her father travels a lot for his job, and her sister, Juniper, displays a mean streak. Other things have changed, though: Lada and Maple are now not only research partners, but also best friends. The two of them have started to spend more time with Mahogany (“probably the smartest kid in our grade”), and they’re newly obsessed with running a mile fast enough to rank at the sixth grade level. Maple’s familiar cheeky tone, relatable vulnerability, and charmingly informal sketches pair well with the new storylines. Maple’s favorite teacher is now also her coach on the cross-country team, and his affable equanimity is an enjoyable foil for the energetic intensity of Maple and Lada. In pursuit of Operation Victory, the girls brave the adolescent indignities of public locker rooms, a first period, and a first pimple, all the while sharing their deepest, purest fears: “IS LIFE JUST A CONSTANT PERIOD THAT NOBODY EVER WARNS YOU ABOUT???” STEM-oriented readers will appreciate the ways in which these subjects are woven into the story. Lada, Maple, and their families appear to be white; there’s racial diversity among the supporting cast. (This review has been updated to reflect a change to the final version of the book.)
Amusing and satisfying. (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: March 4, 2025
ISBN: 9781665941051
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: Dec. 28, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
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
An insubstantial story that offers a prosocial message.
Two boys equally blessed with both talent and ego vie for supremacy in their school’s annual “creative storytelling competition.”
J is “by far the best artist in the entire fifth grade”; K has “become known as the best writer in the entire fifth grade.” Naturally, each one is determined to crush it in The Contest, and each decides an illustrated story is the way to go. The competitive boys try to undermine one another by passing along fake tips for success, each hoping to destroy his opponent’s story. K advises J to “write what you DON’T know” and to use sixth-person narration. “J’s Secrets to Drawing Really Good” are just as catastrophic and include drawing with your nondominant hand and inserting mistakes to keep readers engaged. Creative hijinks ensue. Craft and Alexander have become known on social media for the jocular trash talk they heap on each other; J and K are their fictional child avatars. As an internet bit doled out in small doses, their frenemy-ship is amusing; as a sustained story about storytelling, it’s thin on both character and plot development. Authorial interjections exhort readers to look up 75-cent vocabulary, often used in barbs directed at each other; the latter feel like in-jokes more than playful attempts to engage young readers. Kids may enjoy spotting references to popular children’s authors among the characters’ names, and budding authors and illustrators will benefit from the advice. J and K are both Black; their classmates and teachers are racially diverse.
An insubstantial story that offers a prosocial message. (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: May 6, 2025
ISBN: 9780316582681
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
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