Creatively explores the complexity of middle school friendships.
For Vanessa, the loneliness of an ended friendship becomes creative inspiration in an abandoned museum.
Vanessa Lepp doesn’t understand why Bailey Dominguez doesn’t want to be best friends anymore. They are both still sixth graders at Edgewood Falls Middle School, and they are still in the same homeroom. But Bailey, who is Mexican American, is not in Vanessa’s life anymore. When Vanessa, who is Jewish, finds an old, mostly boarded up museum, she creates an exhibit of meaningful items connected to Bailey, hoping to win back her friend. The space becomes a place to put her pain. Eventually, others bring their stories of sadness and of hope to this secret space, including Sterling, her older brother, and Eli, the class clown from Hebrew school. A mysterious painting has also been left in the museum, raising questions about things we leave behind and how people change as they grow. What will happen to all of these treasures when the building gets torn down? There are many complex themes in this story: the loss of friendship, a military dad stationed in Germany, and Vanessa’s anxiety that manifests as body-focused repetitive behaviors. Sales gently uses the museum’s exhibits to explore self-awareness, help her characters process past behaviors, and reveal consequences that are not initially understood. The inner thoughtfulness is balanced with an action-packed ending that satisfies.
Creatively explores the complexity of middle school friendships. (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: May 16, 2023
ISBN: 9781419754517
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Feb. 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2023
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BOOK REVIEW
Words and art combine to create a moving story.
Imagination and drawing help two grieving children in this illustrated novel by the creator of the popular Timmy Failure series and the comic strip “Pearls Before Swine.”
Things are not looking up for Saint (“I wasn’t named for a bearded guy in heaven. I was named for a football team in Louisiana”). Her favorite toy store is demolished, and her beloved diner closes. It’s all part of the gentrification for which she holds her single mother, who works long hours as a real estate agent and frequently breaks her promises, responsible. Saint very much likes reticent neighbor Daniel “Chance” McGibbons, who uses a cane, but first she has to win his friendship after an awkward beginning at his birthday party. When the uncle Chance lives with sells to developers, Saint’s determination to save his home penetrates Chance’s reserve. The kids’ subsequent shenanigans will delight readers. The story is generously illustrated with Pastis’ characteristic black-and-white cartoon line drawings, mostly of the two round-headed kids, whose hair and skin are as white as the page. Longtime neighborhood resident Old Lady Trifaldi helps Saint learn to cope with change by looking at the stars from her roof, “to make time go backward.” Pastis fills this deceptively simple first-person account with humor, puns, turns, and twists—and the final twist gives this friendship tale its surprising depth.
Words and art combine to create a moving story. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Oct. 10, 2023
ISBN: 9781665929622
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2023
Plays to Rowling’s fan base; equally suited for gifting and reading aloud or alone.
A 7-year-old descends into the Land of the Lost in search of his beloved comfort object.
Jack has loved Dur Pig long enough to wear the beanbag toy into tattered shapelessness—which is why, when his angry older stepsister chucks it out the car window on Christmas Eve, he not only throws a titanic tantrum and viciously rejects the titular replacement pig, but resolves to sneak out to find DP. To his amazement, the Christmas Pig offers to guide him to the place where all lost Things go. Whiffs of childhood classics, assembled with admirable professionalism into a jolly adventure story that plays all the right chords, hang about this tale of loss and love. Along with family drama, Rowling stirs in fantasy, allegory, and generous measures of social and political commentary. Pursued by the Land’s cruel and monstrous Loser, Jack and the Christmas Pig pass through territories from the Wastes of the Unlamented, where booger-throwing Bad Habits roam, to the luxurious City of the Missed for encounters with Hope, Happiness, and Power (a choleric king who rejects a vote that doesn’t go his way). A joyful reunion on the Island of the Beloved turns poignant, but Christmas Eve being “a night for miracles and lost causes,” perhaps there’s still a chance (with a little help from Santa) for everything to come right? In both the narrative and Field’s accomplished, soft-focus illustrations, the cast presents White.
Plays to Rowling’s fan base; equally suited for gifting and reading aloud or alone. (Fantasy. 8-12)Pub Date: Oct. 12, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-338-79023-8
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Oct. 20, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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