Whether there’s a readership for this is open to question, but it is certainly done well. Miss Austen would probably be...
Young readers not quite ready to tackle Pride and Prejudice directly but who are yet intrigued by it might enjoy this loving tribute by the indefatigable Williams.
The entire story of Jane Austen’s masterpiece is told in diary format by Lizzy herself, including all the important particulars: the arrival of Mr. Bingley to Netherfield Park, her meeting with the “disagreeable” Mr. Darcy, the proposal of the insufferable Mr. Collins, the antics of Lizzy’s giddy sisters and the loss of her beloved sister Jane’s heart to Mr. Bingley. Although Lizzy notes that she is 20, the tone is very much that of a younger girl, as is suitable for her audience. Tiny sketches, watercolors, recipes and wonderful little foldouts of invitations, letters and other minutiae encourage much perusing. Dried flowers, reproductions of paintings and other objects are worked into the diary collages, as are comments by Lizzy about dresses, ribbons and delicacies. Her delight in walking through the fields and opening her mind to many things is evident, and of course, it all ends with the appropriate weddings.
Whether there’s a readership for this is open to question, but it is certainly done well. Miss Austen would probably be pleased. (Dear Reader note) (Fiction/pastiche. 8-12)Pub Date: April 22, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-7636-7030-6
Page Count: 112
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: March 2, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2014
There’s no bones about it: young readers will get a taste of the classic in a fun and humerus way (wocka wocka).
The Muppets put a humorous spin on the classic tragedy The Phantom of the Opera.
The plot is much the same as the original, with Muppets filling in for the original characters. Vicomte Kermit de Chagny and Mademoiselle Piggy Daaé are the main characters and love interests in this tragic tale. As in the classic, Piggy Daaé rises as a star of the Paris Opera House due to training from an Angel of Music, who in this tale is a Koozebanian of Music from the planet Koozebane (or is he?). The main difference between this book and the classic (other than the cast) is the conglomeration of time periods, with a mix of details drawn from both the 21st and the 19th centuries. This may cause older readers mild confusion at first, but children will likely read without inhibition, as the experience of coming across names and objects they recognize and some things they may not is a familiar one. This puntastic tale is full of beloved faces, such as the grouchy pranksters Statler and Waldorf. As in many children’s stories, there is entertainment for older readers with abundant modern references, often found in footnotes, as in a tidbit about Beaker’s burial alongside Oscar Wilde, Molière, and Jim Morrison.
There’s no bones about it: young readers will get a taste of the classic in a fun and humerus way (wocka wocka). (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Oct. 17, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-451-53437-8
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: Aug. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
Readers may wonder if they really needed a poem for every day of the school year.
This novel in verse is a remarkable feat of mimicry. The poems sound exactly like they were written by real fifth-graders.
Ms. Hill’s students, a diverse bunch judging by their names and their pictures, are required to write a poem every morning. (They listen to folk music while they’re writing, which says a lot about Ms. Hill.) One Seuss-inspired poem includes the stanza “Some kids are glad and some are sad. / You sit by Teacher. Were you bad?” That level of authenticity is hard to take unless it reveals something about the characters’ personalities. Happily, many of the students are worth getting to know, like Newt Mathews, a boy with Asperger’s who rescues the frogs hiding in the school’s back brick wall. Their story is compelling enough: as the title hints, the students are trying to prevent their school from being torn down. But too much of the plot feels conventional. When a student gets a crush on a girl who claims to hate him, some readers will pray that they don’t fall in love. The last section of the book is full of lovely, inventive moments. A set of instructions for making a flipbook somehow becomes a metaphor for loss. But too many poems—especially a bad parody of “Big Yellow Taxi”—simply don’t work.
Readers may wonder if they really needed a poem for every day of the school year. (glossary, guide to poetic forms) (Verse novel. 8-12)Pub Date: April 12, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-553-52137-5
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Wendy Lamb/Random
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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