An engaging tale about finding one’s voice and making faraway connections.
Two young girls learn about their respective cultures through a pen-pal program in Bleckwehl’s middle-grade novel.
Smart, quiet Neyah Jabari is a 12-year-old girl who lives in Letsokoane, a village in Kenya. Fetching water for various family and community needs is by far the most crucial chore assigned to her, as it affects the lives of everyone around her; for example, if there were no water for the cows, they wouldn’t be able to produce milk to feed families. Bibi, Neyah’s wise paternal grandmother, tells her that “Water is life,” but for the girl, who dreams of being a doctor, the fact that her own life is tied to retrieving water impedes her future by keeping her out of school for several days at a time. In addition, the local water scarcity is compounded by water uncleanliness. Through a pen-pal exchange initiated by her school’s encouraging headmaster, Neyah becomes friends with Abby Larson, a 12-year-old girl in Minnesota. Their interactions give Neyah the courage to speak up and work toward bringing a change to her village. There’s no lack of tragedy in this story, but there are also insightful lessons about tradition and the fear of change (involving Neyah’s father), showing compassion and finding silver linings (involving Neyah’s friend Malaika), and using persuasive writing skills and remaining persistent despite rejections. Bleckwehl doesn’t shy away from portraying the harsh living conditions in Neyah’s village, but she skillfully builds the beauty of it into the narrative by including dialogue that shows appreciation for its flora and fauna.
An engaging tale about finding one’s voice and making faraway connections.Pub Date: June 6, 2023
ISBN: 9781953491558
Page Count: 290
Publisher: Immortal Works Press
Review Posted Online: March 6, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
Good Guys and Bad get just deserts in the end, and Stanley gets plenty of opportunities to display pluck and valor in this...
Sentenced to a brutal juvenile detention camp for a crime he didn't commit, a wimpy teenager turns four generations of bad family luck around in this sunburnt tale of courage, obsession, and buried treasure from Sachar (Wayside School Gets a Little Stranger, 1995, etc.).
Driven mad by the murder of her black beau, a schoolteacher turns on the once-friendly, verdant town of Green Lake, Texas, becomes feared bandit Kissin' Kate Barlow, and dies, laughing, without revealing where she buried her stash. A century of rainless years later, lake and town are memories—but, with the involuntary help of gangs of juvenile offenders, the last descendant of the last residents is still digging. Enter Stanley Yelnats IV, great-grandson of one of Kissin' Kate's victims and the latest to fall to the family curse of being in the wrong place at the wrong time; under the direction of The Warden, a woman with rattlesnake venom polish on her long nails, Stanley and each of his fellow inmates dig a hole a day in the rock-hard lake bed. Weeks of punishing labor later, Stanley digs up a clue, but is canny enough to conceal the information of which hole it came from. Through flashbacks, Sachar weaves a complex net of hidden relationships and well-timed revelations as he puts his slightly larger-than-life characters under a sun so punishing that readers will be reaching for water bottles.
Good Guys and Bad get just deserts in the end, and Stanley gets plenty of opportunities to display pluck and valor in this rugged, engrossing adventure. (Fiction. 9-13)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1998
ISBN: 978-0-374-33265-5
Page Count: 233
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2000
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