A long picture book for grade school readers with appealing illustrations, a diverse cast and a solid introduction to salsa.
Hickman introduces Roscoe Alfonso Leonidas Washington III and his multigenerational family of salsa dancers in the third book of a series, amusingly illustrated by Rousseau.
Young Roscoe isn’t particularly interested in salsa dancing. His grandparents salsa dance. His parents salsa dance. And despite how much they love dancing, when they ask Roscoe if he wants to learn to salsa dance, “it reminds me of the times my mom told me to eat my peas.” But as they keep giving him advice, he decides he’d rather learn to dance than disappoint his family. Roscoe starts dancing everywhere—in his room, on the football field, in front of the mirror—until he can really imagine himself as a salsa dancer. But despite his growing comfort, he still has to learn. Luckily, his friend Sara has a plan: They’ll take the 60-minute salsa dancing class together. “This is absurd, ridiculous learning how to salsa dance in 60 minutes,” Roscoe says, but Sara is convinced they should give it a try. In the remainder of the oversized picture book—alternating between sometimes-lengthy text and cartoonish full-color illustrations depicting Roscoe’s facial expressions and family members in hilarious detail—Roscoe and Sara go through instructions on how to salsa. While the book wouldn’t actually teach anyone to dance, it’s believable that Roscoe and Sara are able to pick up the basics in a one-hour lesson, which gives Roscoe the confidence he needs to dance in a competition with his family. The cast in the illustrations is wonderfully diverse, and salsa dancing is never presented as something that’s strange for a boy to learn, which might encourage young male readers to branch out into a new athletic activity. The text sometimes has a stilted flow, and the dialogue doesn’t always ring true, but Roscoe’s journey from disinterest to dancing champ is believable, and the illustrations help make him a sympathetic hero.
A long picture book for grade school readers with appealing illustrations, a diverse cast and a solid introduction to salsa.Pub Date: July 15, 2013
ISBN: 978-1481809078
Page Count: 66
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Dec. 26, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An extraordinary journey that speaks to the “before” and “after” of life-changing events.
A magical typewriter brings healing, reconnection, and new friends to a hurting family.
Olivetti, a silent but fully conscious typewriter, has been there since the beginning, living with parents Felix and Beatrice and their children, Ezra, Adalyn, Ernest, and Arlo, a “copper-colored family with eyes as rich as ink.” Olivetti, who even took part in Felix’s proposal to Beatrice, watched playfulness and creativity grow as the children arrived, and he faithfully remembers every single word the people have typed. Then, longing to communicate, he watched the family suffer through Everything That Happened. Which is exactly what seventh grader Ernest is still trying to forget. Constantly carrying his dictionary around, Ernest spends most of his time on the roof away from others, scared of getting close to people for fear of losing them. So, when Beatrice suddenly leaves after taking Olivetti to a pawn shop, grief-stricken Ernest seeks him out and confesses that he fears he’s to blame for her departure. Desperate to help, Olivetti takes the unusual action of breaking typewriterly code: He communicates with Ernest in order to help him. But will it be enough? The chapters are told from Olivetti’s and Ernest’s first-person perspectives and frequently contain flashbacks. Debut author Millington skillfully delivers a complex storyline that deals with heavy topics. With plenty of quotable wisdom, richly textured language, and dry humor, this work reads like a classic.
An extraordinary journey that speaks to the “before” and “after” of life-changing events. (Fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: March 26, 2024
ISBN: 9781250326935
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: Jan. 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
Some readers may feel that the resolution comes a mite too easily, but most will enjoy the journey and be pleased when...
Two sisters make an unauthorized expedition to their former hometown and in the process bring together the two parts of their divided family.
Dooley packs plenty of emotion into this eventful road trip, which takes place over the course of less than 24 hours. Twelve-year-old Ophelia, nicknamed Fella, and her 16-year-old sister, Zoey Grace, aka Zany, are the daughters of a lesbian couple, Shannon and Lacy, who could not legally marry. The two white girls squabble and share memories as they travel from West Virginia to Asheville, North Carolina, where Zany is determined to scatter Mama Lacy’s ashes in accordance with her wishes. The year is 2004, before the Supreme Court decision on gay marriage, and the girls have been separated by hostile, antediluvian custodial laws. Fella’s present-tense narration paints pictures not just of the difficulties they face on the trip (a snowstorm, car trouble, and an unlikely thief among them), but also of their lives before Mama Lacy’s illness and of the ways that things have changed since then. Breathless and engaging, Fella’s distinctive voice is convincingly childlike. The conversations she has with her sister, as well as her insights about their relationship, likewise ring true. While the girls face serious issues, amusing details and the caring adults in their lives keep the tone relatively light.
Some readers may feel that the resolution comes a mite too easily, but most will enjoy the journey and be pleased when Fella’s family figures out how to come together in a new way . (Historical fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: April 4, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-399-16504-7
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: Jan. 31, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
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