A well-paced, engaging, heartwarming story.
Jo and Ronny are neighbors, best friends, and both in a real jam. Though their specific struggles differ, they must work together to successfully squash their fears and meet their deadlines.
Josefina “Jo” Ramos is a talented young Mexican American cellist with dreams of star soloist success like her idols Carlos Prieto and YoYo Ma. In fact, her teacher even nicknamed her Jo-Jo Ma, but she has a major hurdle in her way: stage fright. Her neighbor and best friend, Ronny Russo, is a White boy who has serious anxieties of his own. In the wake of his dad’s being injured at work, his family has hit hard times financially, lost the town home he grew up in, and now faces scary final notice bills. Fortunately, an opportunity that may help both friends presents itself: a part-time after-school gig helping at a senior living center. For Jo it is a chance to perform in a low-stakes environment to defeat her stage fright, and for Ronny it is a chance to make a little extra money just by being his friendly self and chatting with the residents. With notes of O. Henry’s “The Gift of the Magi” and plenty of winter weather mishaps in the lead-up to Christmas, this is a strong seasonal choice, but the universality of the protagonists’ struggles makes this a title with year-round appeal.
A well-paced, engaging, heartwarming story. (author’s note) (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Nov. 8, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-593-10975-5
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A successful call for creating and imagining, even if the story itself falls short.
In the dystopian, totalitarian world of 2099, 14-year-old Tessa and her family are desperate to solve the mystery of her twin brother Theo’s disappearance.
Tessa is growing up in a time when playgrounds are historical relics, surveillance cameras are everywhere, music is outlawed, and owning books is illegal. Under the absolute rule of Zokiris, the decadeslong leader of her territory, people are heavily controlled. When Theo vanishes under mysterious circumstances and his name is erased from the Territory Statistics list, Tessa’s 135-year-old neighbor, Miriam, gives the family contraband books that become central to figuring out Theo’s whereabouts. Most books have long since been seized and stored away in Building 903; Tessa is intrigued by their presence in her home, while her mother is terrified. Lowry, the acclaimed, award-winning author of The Giver (1993), shines in her creation of uncomfortably believable dystopian societies. Tessa’s painfully limited world is fully imagined, with its own history, laws, and norms. Her relationship with her brother reads as realistic and tender and is crucial to the mystery. Miriam is the most strongly developed character: wise and independent, unafraid and hopeful. While the climb to the book’s climax is captivating, the hurried resolution is disappointing. The powerful messaging around the importance of literature and imagination certainly resonates, however. The main characters present white.
A successful call for creating and imagining, even if the story itself falls short. (Dystopian. 9-12)Pub Date: Sept. 29, 2026
ISBN: 9780063515109
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Clarion/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 6, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2026
The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often...
A successful juvenile by the beloved New Yorker writer portrays a farm episode with an imaginative twist that makes a poignant, humorous story of a pig, a spider and a little girl.
Young Fern Arable pleads for the life of runt piglet Wilbur and gets her father to sell him to a neighbor, Mr. Zuckerman. Daily, Fern visits the Zuckermans to sit and muse with Wilbur and with the clever pen spider Charlotte, who befriends him when he is lonely and downcast. At the news of Wilbur's forthcoming slaughter, campaigning Charlotte, to the astonishment of people for miles around, spins words in her web. "Some Pig" comes first. Then "Terrific"—then "Radiant". The last word, when Wilbur is about to win a show prize and Charlotte is about to die from building her egg sac, is "Humble". And as the wonderful Charlotte does die, the sadness is tempered by the promise of more spiders next spring.
The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often informative as amusing, and the whole tenor of appealing wit and pathos will make fine entertainment for reading aloud, too.Pub Date: Oct. 15, 1952
ISBN: 978-0-06-026385-0
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1952
PERSPECTIVES
SEEN & HEARD
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