Another delightful, sidesplitting chronicle.
A fortune cookie sets Ben on the road to perfection.
One morning, after Ben Yokoyama’s mom burns the pancakes, his dad ruins Ben’s jersey while doing the laundry, and his best friend, Janet, is late, he is overwhelmed with frustration and anger. So, when his fortune cookie says “practice makes perfect,” Ben decides that everyone in his life, including himself, just needs more practice to get to perfection. An opportunity arises when Ben makes friends with Darby, the new kid who has a secret, extraordinarily accomplished alter ego, Darbino. Darbino gives Ben lessons in being perfect, and at first, Ben is overjoyed. But reaching perfection proves more difficult than he imagined, especially when it seems he has to give up baseball, something he loves—even if he can’t do it perfectly. And when Ben’s pursuit for perfection ends in deceit and near disaster, he realizes that maybe being perfect isn’t really all that great. This third installment of the Cookie Chronicles is just as hilarious and entertaining as its predecessors. Silly black-and-white illustrations and dramatic analogies fill the pages. Japanese and White Ben tackles challenges like accepting your imperfections, living up to expectations, trying your best, and repairing broken relationships. The Japanese concept of kintsugi—the art of repairing broken pottery with gold seams—is woven into the story.
Another delightful, sidesplitting chronicle. (pancake tutorial) (Humor. 8-12)Pub Date: Dec. 7, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-30277-4
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 28, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Charming, poignant, and thoughtfully woven.
An aspiring scientist and a budding artist become friends and help each other with dream projects.
Unfolding in mid-1980s Sacramento, California, this story stars 12-year-olds Rosalind and Benjamin as first-person narrators in alternating chapters. Ro’s father, a fellow space buff, was killed by a drunk driver; the rocket they were working on together lies unfinished in her closet. As for Benji, not only has his best friend, Amir, moved away, but the comic book holding the clue for locating his dad is also missing. Along with their profound personal losses, the protagonists share a fixation with the universe’s intriguing potential: Ro decides to complete the rocket and hopes to launch mementos of her father into outer space while Benji’s conviction that aliens and UFOs are real compels his imagination and creativity as an artist. An accident in science class triggers a chain of events forcing Benji and Ro, who is new to the school, to interact and unintentionally learn each other’s secrets. They resolve to find Benji’s dad—a famous comic-book artist—and partner to finish Ro’s rocket for the science fair. Together, they overcome technical, scheduling, and geographical challenges. Readers will be drawn in by amusing and fantastical elements in the comic book theme, high emotional stakes that arouse sympathy, and well-drawn character development as the protagonists navigate life lessons around grief, patience, self-advocacy, and standing up for others. Ro is biracial (Chinese/White); Benji is White.
Charming, poignant, and thoughtfully woven. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Jan. 12, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-06-300888-5
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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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