A tale sure to encourage readers to gather around and enjoy one another’s company.
A botanical wonder relinks a disconnected family.
Penny’s family is busy: Dinners need making, homework needs doing, and daily drudgery leaves little opportunity for the household to commune. That is, until Penny and resident pup Bo-Belly notice a glimmer of emerald, suspiciously arboreal in nature, that’s taken root in the kitchen. It grows ever “taller, a little barkier, a little leafier,” until it’s too large to ignore; as the botanical interloper branches out under Penny’s care, it demands the family’s united attention and action. Their efforts to accommodate Tree aren’t without challenges—after Tree breaks through the roof, rain trickles in—but just beyond these bothers lie even bigger joys, among them birdsong, starlight, and a renewed capacity for familial respite. By the time autumn arrives and Tree’s leaves have turned a brilliant vermillion, togetherness has become the rule, not the exception. Scanlon and Vernick depict a protagonist worth emulating; the determined, self-assured, and green-thumbed Penny proves an aspirational figure, capable of energizing similarly precocious readers with a tenacity that verges on the mythical. Reminiscent of craft art styles typically used to depict traditional tales, Lee’s illustrations underscore the plot’s folkloric nature. Her subdued palette creates space for and emphasizes Tree’s verdant presence, though the green glow that surrounds it suggests that magic may also lurk among its leaves. Penny and her mother are brown-skinned, while her father is pale-skinned.
A tale sure to encourage readers to gather around and enjoy one another’s company. (Picture book. 6-9)Pub Date: Sept. 30, 2025
ISBN: 9781665948371
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Beach Lane/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
It’s hard to argue with success, but guides that actually do the math will be more useful to budding capitalists.
How to raise money for a coveted poster: put your friends to work!
John, founder of the FUBU fashion line and a Shark Tank venture capitalist, offers a self-referential blueprint for financial success. Having only half of the $10 he needs for a Minka J poster, Daymond forks over $1 to buy a plain T-shirt, paints a picture of the pop star on it, sells it for $5, and uses all of his cash to buy nine more shirts. Then he recruits three friends to decorate them with his design and help sell them for an unspecified amount (from a conveniently free and empty street-fair booth) until they’re gone. The enterprising entrepreneur reimburses himself for the shirts and splits the remaining proceeds, which leaves him with enough for that poster as well as a “brand-new business book,” while his friends express other fiscal strategies: saving their share, spending it all on new art supplies, or donating part and buying a (math) book with the rest. (In a closing summation, the author also suggests investing in stocks, bonds, or cryptocurrency.) Though Miles cranks up the visual energy in her sparsely detailed illustrations by incorporating bright colors and lots of greenbacks, the actual advice feels a bit vague. Daymond is Black; most of the cast are people of color. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
It’s hard to argue with success, but guides that actually do the math will be more useful to budding capitalists. (Picture book. 7-9)Pub Date: March 21, 2023
ISBN: 978-0-593-56727-2
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2023
Charming.
An assortment of unusual characters form friendships and help each other become their best selves.
Mr. and Mrs. Tupper, who live at Number 3 Ramshorn Drive, are antiquarians. Their daughter, Jillian, loves and cares for a plant named Ivy, who has “three speckles on each leaf and three letters in her name.” Toasty, the grumpy goldfish, lives in an octagonal tank and wishes he were Jillian’s favorite; when Arthur the spider arrives inside an antique desk, he brings wisdom and insight. Ollie the violet plant, Louise the bee, and Sunny the canary each arrive with their own quirks and problems to solve. Each character has a distinct personality and perspective; sometimes they clash, but more often they learn to empathize, see each other’s points of view, and work to help one another. They also help the Tupper family with bills and a burglar. The Fan brothers’ soft-edged, old-fashioned, black-and-white illustrations depict Toasty and Arthur with tiny hats; Ivy and Ollie have facial expressions on their plant pots. The Tuppers have paper-white skin and dark hair. The story comes together like a recipe: Simple ingredients combine, transform, and rise into something wonderful. In its matter-of-fact wisdom, rich vocabulary (often defined within the text), hint of magic, and empathetic nonhuman characters who solve problems in creative ways, this delightful work is reminiscent of Ferris by Kate DiCamillo, Our Friend Hedgehog by Lauren Castillo, and Ivy Lost and Found by Cynthia Lord and Stephanie Graegin.
Charming. (Fiction. 6-9)Pub Date: May 27, 2025
ISBN: 9781665942485
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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