Tender and touching.
A child loses a grandparent, mourns the absence, and constructs a story about where that grandparent may be.
“One day, / Grandpa is gone,” opens this Korean import, told in a direct, forthcoming voice. With “Grandpa is gone” as a stark repeated refrain, the grieving grandchild chronicles the absence: Grandpa’s shoes are still in the closet, “waiting to be worn”; he’s not there to pick up his name stamp from the stationery store; and everyone asks about him. Why, the child wonders, would Grandpa leave so suddenly, without any goodbyes? But as readers learn about the loss, intermittent spreads reveal an imagined destination for Grandpa: his own planet, complete with the tailoring shop he had during his life. The double gatefold that closes the book reveals even more details, the child speculating that perhaps Grandpa now lives in this place “full of dazzling stars.” In this fantastical place, the beloved objects of Grandpa’s world walk on feet or fly through space; a button hangs in the sky like a planet; and a pincushion serves as a moon. The book’s plainspoken, authentically childlike observations are poignant in their restraint: At one point, the child, wrapped in Grandpa’s jacket, breathes in his scent, repeating (and seeming to finally accept) that “Grandpa is gone.” The striking dust jacket illustration reveals grandchild (cover) and grandparent (back cover) standing on balls of thread or yarn, doubling as planets, that connect them in the vastness of space.
Tender and touching. (Picture book. 5-12)Pub Date: Nov. 2, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-59270-313-5
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Enchanted Lion Books
Review Posted Online: Sept. 23, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2021
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs.
The Heffley family’s house undergoes a disastrous attempt at home improvement.
When Great Aunt Reba dies, she leaves some money to the family. Greg’s mom calls a family meeting to determine what to do with their share, proposing home improvements and then overruling the family’s cartoonish wish lists and instead pushing for an addition to the kitchen. Before bringing in the construction crew, the Heffleys attempt to do minor maintenance and repairs themselves—during which Greg fails at the work in various slapstick scenes. Once the professionals are brought in, the problems keep getting worse: angry neighbors, terrifying problems in walls, and—most serious—civil permitting issues that put the kibosh on what work’s been done. Left with only enough inheritance to patch and repair the exterior of the house—and with the school’s dismal standardized test scores as a final straw—Greg’s mom steers the family toward moving, opening up house-hunting and house-selling storylines (and devastating loyal Rowley, who doesn’t want to lose his best friend). While Greg’s positive about the move, he’s not completely uncaring about Rowley’s action. (And of course, Greg himself is not as unaffected as he wishes.) The gags include effectively placed callbacks to seemingly incidental events (the “stress lizard” brought in on testing day is particularly funny) and a lampoon of after-school-special–style problem books. Just when it seems that the Heffleys really will move, a new sequence of chaotic trouble and property destruction heralds a return to the status quo. Whew.
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs. (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 8-12)Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3903-3
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Nov. 18, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
This outing lacks the sophistication of such category standards as Clementine; here’s hoping English amps things up for...
A gentle voice and familiar pitfalls characterize this tale of a boy navigating the risky road to responsibility.
Gavin is new to his neighborhood and Carver Elementary. He likes his new friend, Richard, and has a typically contentious relationship with his older sister, Danielle. When Gavin’s desire to impress Richard sets off a disastrous chain of events, the boy struggles to evade responsibility for his actions. “After all, it isn’t his fault that Danielle’s snow globe got broken. Sure, he shouldn’t have been in her room—but then, she shouldn’t be keeping candy in her room to tempt him. Anybody would be tempted. Anybody!” opines Gavin once he learns the punishment for his crime. While Gavin has a charming Everyboy quality, and his aversion to Aunt Myrtle’s yapping little dog rings true, little about Gavin distinguishes him from other trouble-prone protagonists. He is, regrettably, forgettable. Coretta Scott King Honor winner English (Francie, 1999) is a teacher whose storytelling usually benefits from her day job. Unfortunately, the pizzazz of classroom chaos is largely absent from this series opener.
This outing lacks the sophistication of such category standards as Clementine; here’s hoping English amps things up for subsequent volumes. (Fiction. 6-9)Pub Date: Dec. 17, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-547-97044-8
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 1, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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