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
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
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
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