Not perfect, but a worthwhile glimpse into a colorful culture.
In this coming-of-age story, Lee (Fricken Kids, 2013) tackles grief, teenage dissatisfaction, familial drama, and culture shock.
Gabriel Kane (pronounced kah-neh) Foster, 13, is desperately trying to deal with the grief and guilt caused by the death of his older sister, Makena. To make matters worse for Gabe, his parents have lost their house, and the whole family is moving from California to Hawaii, forcing Gabe to leave behind the house he grew up in and, even worse, his girlfriend, Deanna. Over it all is the shadow of Makena, never far away, because Gabriel’s mother insists on carrying her ashes around in a chunky plastic jar—and talking to them. Then there’s his extended family and the culture shock of a California teen thrust into the Hawaiian environment and culture. But it’s not all bad: his cousin U’i seems to like him, and her best friend, Napua, is one of the prettiest girls Gabe has ever seen. If he can just survive his bullying cousin Joe-Joe, abusive Uncle Nalu, aka Bob, and the family sport, paddling, Gabe might find that Hawaii isn’t far from the paradise everyone else seems to think it is. Lee does a commendable job capturing the voice of a disaffected teenage boy. Gabe’s struggles come across as authentic and true to life. Unfortunately, spending so much time in the point of view of an angst-ridden teenager has the effect of exaggerating many of the other characters to almost caricature levels, especially the adults. Gabriel’s mother reads as particularly horrible, and her abusive comments and reactions to her son are sometimes jarringly over the top. On the other hand, vibrant depictions of Hawaiian culture and language—vital to the characters’ lives—are skillfully blended into the story.
Not perfect, but a worthwhile glimpse into a colorful culture.Pub Date: Feb. 24, 2015
ISBN: 978-0996132800
Page Count: 230
Publisher: Makalii Productions
Review Posted Online: April 24, 2015
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
Little Blue’s fans will enjoy the animal sounds and counting opportunities, but it’s the sparkling lights on the truck’s own...
The sturdy Little Blue Truck is back for his third adventure, this time delivering Christmas trees to his band of animal pals.
The truck is decked out for the season with a Christmas wreath that suggests a nose between headlights acting as eyeballs. Little Blue loads up with trees at Toad’s Trees, where five trees are marked with numbered tags. These five trees are counted and arithmetically manipulated in various ways throughout the rhyming story as they are dropped off one by one to Little Blue’s friends. The final tree is reserved for the truck’s own use at his garage home, where he is welcomed back by the tree salestoad in a neatly circular fashion. The last tree is already decorated, and Little Blue gets a surprise along with readers, as tiny lights embedded in the illustrations sparkle for a few seconds when the last page is turned. Though it’s a gimmick, it’s a pleasant surprise, and it fits with the retro atmosphere of the snowy country scenes. The short, rhyming text is accented with colored highlights, red for the animal sounds and bright green for the numerical words in the Christmas-tree countdown.
Little Blue’s fans will enjoy the animal sounds and counting opportunities, but it’s the sparkling lights on the truck’s own tree that will put a twinkle in a toddler’s eyes. (Picture book. 2-5)Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-544-32041-3
Page Count: 24
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2014
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