A well-written and engaging cautionary tale about the issues facing preteen girls in modern society.
A young girl moves with her family to the suburbs, leaving her best friend behind and learning that relationships and growing up are more complicated than she imagined.
In this debut novel, 10-year-old Audrey Tabor has a “pretty terrific” life in Boston with her parents, little brother, and best friend, Milly, right across the street. The only downside is their cramped city apartment with no yard to play in, so Audrey is thrilled when her parents find a house they can afford in the nearby suburb of Greenwood Springs. She is sad to leave Milly behind but excited about her new life, and she even finds a new good friend in Gretchen, a girl in her fifth-grade class. Gretchen warns her about the “Style Girls,” a clique of mean preteens who rule the fifth grade by promoting superficial values of fashion and wealth and aiming vicious barbs at any girl who doesn’t measure up. Audrey is confused, however, when the Style Girls approach her and offer her a place in the group. They seem so nice, so cool, and, almost without realizing it, Audrey abandons Gretchen and Milly and finds she is willing to do almost anything to remain in the clique. Koresky expertly unravels the closely woven threads of social insecurity, economic class, and body image that have begun to shape the lives of 21st-century girls at an earlier and earlier age. Although the reader can see the perilous situation Audrey embraces, her portrayal is so sensitive and realistic that one never loses sympathy with her as she begins to lie to her friends and family, adopt the Style Girls’ aristocratic cruelty, and diet to the point of emaciation, all the while realizing that she will never really fit in. The one glaring omission is any mention of the internet and the cyberbullying that would doubtless appeal to the cellphone-addicted Style Girls. The ending is somewhat pat, but since Audrey’s character is so well-developed and the supporting cast so strong, her journey still resonates.
A well-written and engaging cautionary tale about the issues facing preteen girls in modern society.Pub Date: Nov. 3, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-9839460-2-1
Page Count: 276
Publisher: Flying Corgi Media
Review Posted Online: Sept. 1, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The seemingly ageless Seeger brings back his renowned giant for another go in a tuneful tale that, like the art, is a bit sketchy, but chockful of worthy messages. Faced with yearly floods and droughts since they’ve cut down all their trees, the townsfolk decide to build a dam—but the project is stymied by a boulder that is too huge to move. Call on Abiyoyo, suggests the granddaughter of the man with the magic wand, then just “Zoop Zoop” him away again. But the rock that Abiyoyo obligingly flings aside smashes the wand. How to avoid Abiyoyo’s destruction now? Sing the monster to sleep, then make it a peaceful, tree-planting member of the community, of course. Seeger sums it up in a postscript: “every community must learn to manage its giants.” Hays, who illustrated the original (1986), creates colorful, if unfinished-looking, scenes featuring a notably multicultural human cast and a towering Cubist fantasy of a giant. The song, based on a Xhosa lullaby, still has that hard-to-resist sing-along potential, and the themes of waging peace, collective action, and the benefits of sound ecological practices are presented in ways that children will both appreciate and enjoy. (Picture book. 5-9)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-689-83271-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2001
Although the love comes shining through, the text often confuses in straining for patterned simplicity.
A collection of parental wishes for a child.
It starts out simply enough: two children run pell-mell across an open field, one holding a high-flying kite with the line “I wish you more ups than downs.” But on subsequent pages, some of the analogous concepts are confusing or ambiguous. The line “I wish you more tippy-toes than deep” accompanies a picture of a boy happily swimming in a pool. His feet are visible, but it's not clear whether he's floating in the deep end or standing in the shallow. Then there's a picture of a boy on a beach, his pockets bulging with driftwood and colorful shells, looking frustrated that his pockets won't hold the rest of his beachcombing treasures, which lie tantalizingly before him on the sand. The line reads: “I wish you more treasures than pockets.” Most children will feel the better wish would be that he had just the right amount of pockets for his treasures. Some of the wordplay, such as “more can than knot” and “more pause than fast-forward,” will tickle older readers with their accompanying, comical illustrations. The beautifully simple pictures are a sweet, kid- and parent-appealing blend of comic-strip style and fine art; the cast of children depicted is commendably multiethnic.
Although the love comes shining through, the text often confuses in straining for patterned simplicity. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: April 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4521-2699-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2015
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