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BIG NATE ON A ROLL

Name: BIG NATE ON A ROLL
Author: Lincoln Peirce
ISBN: 978-0-06-194438-3

From the Big Nate series , Vol. 3

by Lincoln Peirce & illustrated by Lincoln Peirce ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 16, 2011

On a roll indeed!

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Sixth grader Nate Wright needs a new skateboard…but more than that he needs to beat perfect Artur at SOMETHING.

Artur has a nifty foreign accent. Artur has Jenny, the girl Nate likes. Artur charms adults and kids alike, and Nate can’t stand it. What makes it double awful is that Artur is such a nice guy. Infuriating. But Artur IS to blame for Nate’s losing his skateboard…indirectly. Artur dripped paint in Nate’s eye, causing Nate to knock over the ladder Artur was on. Nate got detention (Artur didn’t), and Nate had to hurry on his skateboard to get to Timber Scouts. In the hurry, Nate was clothes-lined by a lady and her poodle, and his board sailed into the river. There is a chance he can win a new board by selling (dorky) wall hangings door to door for Scouts. He just has to beat the new kid in the troop…Artur! Peirce’s third Big Nate chapter book, starring Big Nate (from the comic strip of the same name), is the slickest of this series of hybrid comics-and-text chapter books. Nate’s an artistic, realistic, funny narrator.

On a roll indeed!

Pub Date: Aug. 16, 2011

ISBN: 978-0-06-194438-3

Page Count: 224

Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: July 5, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2011

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

- BOOK REVIEW
NEXT STOP, SUPERSTARDOM!
by Lincoln Peirce

- BOOK REVIEW
DESTINED FOR AWESOMENESS
by Lincoln Peirce ; illustrated by Lincoln Peirce

- BOOK REVIEW
BATTLE OF THE BODKINS
by Lincoln Peirce ; illustrated by Lincoln Peirce

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MY NAME IS YOON

by Helen Recorvits & illustrated by Gabi Swiatkowska ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 3, 2003

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An unhappy young immigrant seeks, and at last regains, a sense of self in this atmospheric, expressionistically illustrated episode. Instead of writing her own name on her papers at school, Yoon calls herself “Cat,” then “Bird”—“I wanted to be BIRD. I wanted to fly, fly back to Korea”—and even, after a classmate’s friendly culinary overture, “Cupcake.” Ultimately, she finds her balance again: “I write my name in English now. It still means Shining Wisdom.” Swiatkowska internalizes Yoon’s adjustment, both by depicting her escape fantasies literally, and by placing figures against expanses of wall that are either empty of decoration, or contain windows opening onto distant, elaborate landscapes. Reminiscent of Allen Say’s work for its tone, theme, and neatly drafted, often metaphorical art, this strongly communicates Yoon’s feelings in words and pictures both. She is also surrounded by supportive adults, and her cultural heritage, though specified, is given such a low profile that she becomes a sort of everychild, with whom many young readers faced with a similar sense of displacement will identify. (Picture book. 8-10)

Pub Date: April 3, 2003

ISBN: 0-374-35114-7

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Frances Foster/Farrar, Straus & Giroux

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2003

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

- BOOK REVIEW
YOON AND THE JADE BRACELET
by Helen Recorvits & illustrated by Gabi Swiatkowska

- BOOK REVIEW
YOON AND THE CHRISTMAS MITTEN
by Helen Recorvits & illustrated by Gabi Swiatkowska

- BOOK REVIEW
WHERE HEROES HIDE
by Helen Recorvits

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FIVE THINGS ABOUT AVA ANDREWS

by Margaret Dilloway ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 9, 2020

Opens as standard living-with-disability tale, grows into a heartwarming story about a community discovering activism.

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When Ava’s only friend moves away, anxiety makes finding a new social circle daunting.

Ava’s best friend, Zelia, has always been her prop and support. It’s tough being an 11-year-old with a pacemaker; the noncompaction cardiomyopathy she was born with (Ava had heart surgery when she was only 4) combines with intense anxiety to leave Ava self-loathing and socially isolated. Her dad teaches cotillion classes for sixth graders, and Ava, like her older brothers before her, is required to attend, to dance, and to make excruciating small talk. A girl in class invites her to an improv group, and Ava reluctantly agrees. To her shock, improv, which celebrates failure, is amazing for her anxiety. But the improv theater and the waterfront where it’s located are under threat from pricey real estate developers. Saving the area from gentrification will require a committed activist, though, and Ava can barely speak in public. Cotillion and improv give Ava tool sets to use to live with anxiety, and the cause gives her a motivation. The conclusion is optimistically uncomplicated, but in a story that successfully explores the complexities of chronic illness mixed with mental illness, the comfort is welcome. Ava is biracial, Japanese American and white, and lives in a diverse community; the vice principal and Ava’s therapist are black, and the mean real estate developer is almost stereotypically white.

Opens as standard living-with-disability tale, grows into a heartwarming story about a community discovering activism. (author’s note, improv games) (Fiction. 9-11)