A simple, repetitive story about fostering self-worth.
This illustrated story, based on the author’s experience with her own son, aims to teach young readers that each person is special and unique.
As the book opens, an unnamed pregnant woman excitedly anticipates the birth of her son. She knows, even then, that “No other like him would exist in the universe.” As he grows up, she loves to tell him stories, encouraging him to become “anything he wanted to be.” The boy starts school and does well, earning awards for his good work and making his mother proud. After he begins high school, however, he begins to feel lonely and sad, and although his mother continues to tell him that he’s special, he stops listening to her. He neglects his schoolwork and changes his look in order to fit in better at school. He ends up in a coma after a bicycle accident. His mother visits him every day, telling him that he’s special. The boy recovers, and his mother encourages him as he works toward rehabilitation. He goes to college, gets married to a nice woman, and has a son of his own, whom he tells, “You are very special. No other like you exists in the universe.” The new father later becomes a writer who tells other children stories of affirmation. The text is paired with the author’s realistic illustrations, colored in mostly subdued tones, which hew closely to the events of the text. The text is highly repetitious, and variations on the phrase “You are special. No other like you exists in the universe” appear on nearly every page to drive that point home. However, this repetition will likely appeal to very young readers. The story as a whole, however, is rather text-heavy, which may cause inexperienced readers to lose focus. Despite the book’s title, the text only mentions God a couple times, without reference to a specific religion or denomination.
A simple, repetitive story about fostering self-worth.Pub Date: Jan. 9, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-67961-070-7
Page Count: 26
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: March 19, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs.
The Heffley family’s house undergoes a disastrous attempt at home improvement.
When Great Aunt Reba dies, she leaves some money to the family. Greg’s mom calls a family meeting to determine what to do with their share, proposing home improvements and then overruling the family’s cartoonish wish lists and instead pushing for an addition to the kitchen. Before bringing in the construction crew, the Heffleys attempt to do minor maintenance and repairs themselves—during which Greg fails at the work in various slapstick scenes. Once the professionals are brought in, the problems keep getting worse: angry neighbors, terrifying problems in walls, and—most serious—civil permitting issues that put the kibosh on what work’s been done. Left with only enough inheritance to patch and repair the exterior of the house—and with the school’s dismal standardized test scores as a final straw—Greg’s mom steers the family toward moving, opening up house-hunting and house-selling storylines (and devastating loyal Rowley, who doesn’t want to lose his best friend). While Greg’s positive about the move, he’s not completely uncaring about Rowley’s action. (And of course, Greg himself is not as unaffected as he wishes.) The gags include effectively placed callbacks to seemingly incidental events (the “stress lizard” brought in on testing day is particularly funny) and a lampoon of after-school-special–style problem books. Just when it seems that the Heffleys really will move, a new sequence of chaotic trouble and property destruction heralds a return to the status quo. Whew.
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs. (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 8-12)Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3903-3
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Nov. 18, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
A captivating book situated in present-day discourse around the refugee crisis, featuring two boys who stand by their high...
Two parallel stories, one of a Syrian boy from Aleppo fleeing war, and another of a white American boy, son of a NATO contractor, dealing with the challenges of growing up, intersect at a house in Brussels.
Ahmed lost his father while crossing the Mediterranean. Alone and broke in Europe, he takes things into his own hands to get to safety but ends up having to hide in the basement of a residential house. After months of hiding, he is discovered by Max, a boy of similar age and parallel high integrity and courage, who is experiencing his own set of troubles learning a new language, moving to a new country, and being teased at school. In an unexpected turn of events, the two boys and their new friends Farah, a Muslim Belgian girl, and Oscar, a white Belgian boy, successfully scheme for Ahmed to go to school while he remains in hiding the rest of the time. What is at stake for Ahmed is immense, and so is the risk to everyone involved. Marsh invites art and history to motivate her protagonists, drawing parallels to gentiles who protected Jews fleeing Nazi terror and citing present-day political news. This well-crafted and suspenseful novel touches on the topics of refugees and immigrant integration, terrorism, Islam, Islamophobia, and the Syrian war with sensitivity and grace.
A captivating book situated in present-day discourse around the refugee crisis, featuring two boys who stand by their high values in the face of grave risk and succeed in drawing goodwill from others. (Historical fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Aug. 7, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-250-30757-6
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: June 10, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2018
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