A sweet, realistic, and kid-friendly book despite uneven execution.
Fourth grader Zoey Lyndon navigates school, family, friendships, and a mystery or two in Anderson’s enjoyable second series entry.
The author introduces the problem of the classroom’s “sticky finger bandit,” or thief, immediately, with Zoey noting that someone has been stealing her pencils and that other things have gone missing from her classroom over the last few weeks. Anderson successfully weaves together several storylines after this setup. First, Zoey decides to dance in a talent show with her good friends Tommi, Emily, and Olivia. Zoey’s mom was on the dance team of the historically Black college she attended, so she helps the girls with choreography and rehearsals. Another subplot involves Zoey’s sister’s secret admirer. Anderson successfully roots her characters in events of daily life, which includes family dinners, church attendance, and chores; when Zoey packs her summer clothes and wipes down the sink, she serves as a fine role model for youngsters. The text describes the appearance of Zoey’s friend Emily and Zoey’s sister Jasmine, but it doesn’t do so for several other characters, which may make it hard for readers to visualize them. The text tells of how some characters deal well with not placing first in the talent show, but Anderson also realistically depicts a child exploding in anger when someone steals his Nintendo game. The bandit is eventually revealed to have problems at home; at one point, they sadly steal a pencil which reads “Be Happy.” There are a few copy editing errors, including the misspelling of a character’s name and a jarring slip into first-person narration, which prove distracting. A well-meaning reference to microaggressions doesn’t really work because, as Zoey’s mom points out, it isn’t relevant to the case at hand. More insight into Zoey’s interests or those of her friends, other than the talent show, would have also been welcome. However, the book effectively leaves things open for a third installment.
A sweet, realistic, and kid-friendly book despite uneven execution.Pub Date: June 29, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-73661-672-7
Page Count: 148
Publisher: Crystal M Anderson
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2021
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
Telgemeier’s bold colors, superior visual storytelling, and unusual subject matter will keep readers emotionally engaged and...
Catrina narrates the story of her mixed-race (Latino/white) family’s move from Southern California to Bahía de la Luna on the Northern California coast.
Dad has a new job, but it’s little sister Maya’s lungs that motivate the move: she has had cystic fibrosis since birth—a degenerative breathing condition. Despite her health, Maya loves adventure, even if her lungs suffer for it and even when Cat must follow to keep her safe. When Carlos, a tall, brown, and handsome teen Ghost Tour guide introduces the sisters to the Bahía ghosts—most of whom were Spanish-speaking Mexicans when alive—they fascinate Maya and she them, but the terrified Cat wants only to get herself and Maya back to safety. When the ghost adventure leads to Maya’s hospitalization, Cat blames both herself and Carlos, which makes seeing him at school difficult. As Cat awakens to the meaning of Halloween and Day of the Dead in this strange new home, she comes to understand the importance of the ghosts both to herself and to Maya. Telgemeier neatly balances enough issues that a lesser artist would split them into separate stories and delivers as much delight textually as visually. The backmatter includes snippets from Telgemeier’s sketchbook and a photo of her in Día makeup.
Telgemeier’s bold colors, superior visual storytelling, and unusual subject matter will keep readers emotionally engaged and unable to put down this compelling tale. (Graphic fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 13, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-545-54061-2
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: July 1, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2016
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