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NEW FRIENDS

Name: NEW FRIENDS
Author: Michelle Misra
ISBN: 978-1-4814-5798-9

From the Angel Wings series , Vol. 1

by Michelle Misra ; illustrated by Samantha Chaffey ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 7, 2016

With its simplistic plotting and cardboard characterization, this series opener is less than heavenly.

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Mean girls and magic at a school for aspiring guardian angels.

Third-grader Ella is a member of the new class at Guardian Angel Academy, where, through good deeds, young angels earn stamps on their halo cards. The stamps translate to color-changing halos (rather like karate belts), which culminate in the diamond halo that means an angel is ready to be a guardian angel. The students can lose stamps too, for bad behavior. Outgoing Ella—who quickly becomes close with her three dorm-mates—has to suppress her drive for adventure and keep her temper under lock. She is challenged by one-dimensional, priggish mean-girl Primrose, who manipulates Ella’s short fuse, baiting her into misbehavior. When Ella learns that her friend Tilly is miserable from homesickness, she sneaks away from the school to an off-limits location to collect a magical remembering flower to cheer her pal up. A predictable kerfuffle ensues. The uniformly female angels are easiest to tell apart by hairstyle, especially in the attractive, cherubic black-and-white illustrations; though one looks to have light-brown skin on the cover, in the interior illustrations they all appear to be white. The secular angels use magic instead of religious mythology.

With its simplistic plotting and cardboard characterization, this series opener is less than heavenly. (Fantasy. 6-9)

Pub Date: June 7, 2016

ISBN: 978-1-4814-5798-9

Page Count: 112

Publisher: Aladdin

Review Posted Online: March 29, 2016

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2016

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

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LITTLE DAYMOND LEARNS TO EARN

by Daymond John ; illustrated by Nicole Miles ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 21, 2023

It’s hard to argue with success, but guides that actually do the math will be more useful to budding capitalists.

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How to raise money for a coveted poster: put your friends to work!

John, founder of the FUBU fashion line and a Shark Tank venture capitalist, offers a self-referential blueprint for financial success. Having only half of the $10 he needs for a Minka J poster, Daymond forks over $1 to buy a plain T-shirt, paints a picture of the pop star on it, sells it for $5, and uses all of his cash to buy nine more shirts. Then he recruits three friends to decorate them with his design and help sell them for an unspecified amount (from a conveniently free and empty street-fair booth) until they’re gone. The enterprising entrepreneur reimburses himself for the shirts and splits the remaining proceeds, which leaves him with enough for that poster as well as a “brand-new business book,” while his friends express other fiscal strategies: saving their share, spending it all on new art supplies, or donating part and buying a (math) book with the rest. (In a closing summation, the author also suggests investing in stocks, bonds, or cryptocurrency.) Though Miles cranks up the visual energy in her sparsely detailed illustrations by incorporating bright colors and lots of greenbacks, the actual advice feels a bit vague. Daymond is Black; most of the cast are people of color. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

It’s hard to argue with success, but guides that actually do the math will be more useful to budding capitalists. (Picture book. 7-9)

Pub Date: March 21, 2023

ISBN: 978-0-593-56727-2

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Random House

Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2022

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2023

Categories:

CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

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GROWING HOME

by Beth Ferry ; illustrated by Eric Fan & Terry Fan ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 27, 2025

Charming.

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An assortment of unusual characters form friendships and help each other become their best selves.

Mr. and Mrs. Tupper, who live at Number 3 Ramshorn Drive, are antiquarians. Their daughter, Jillian, loves and cares for a plant named Ivy, who has “three speckles on each leaf and three letters in her name.” Toasty, the grumpy goldfish, lives in an octagonal tank and wishes he were Jillian’s favorite; when Arthur the spider arrives inside an antique desk, he brings wisdom and insight. Ollie the violet plant, Louise the bee, and Sunny the canary each arrive with their own quirks and problems to solve. Each character has a distinct personality and perspective; sometimes they clash, but more often they learn to empathize, see each other’s points of view, and work to help one another. They also help the Tupper family with bills and a burglar. The Fan brothers’ soft-edged, old-fashioned, black-and-white illustrations depict Toasty and Arthur with tiny hats; Ivy and Ollie have facial expressions on their plant pots. The Tuppers have paper-white skin and dark hair. The story comes together like a recipe: Simple ingredients combine, transform, and rise into something wonderful. In its matter-of-fact wisdom, rich vocabulary (often defined within the text), hint of magic, and empathetic nonhuman characters who solve problems in creative ways, this delightful work is reminiscent of Ferris by Kate DiCamillo, Our Friend Hedgehog by Lauren Castillo, and Ivy Lost and Found by Cynthia Lord and Stephanie Graegin.

Charming. (Fiction. 6-9)