A simple travelogue that touches on the tastes and sights of Beijing through the eyes of an excited little traveler from Minnesota.
In this straightforward, travel-themed children’s picture book, a girl named Cee Cee dreams of seeing the world and chronicling her adventures with her camera. She’s delighted to arrive home from school and find that the whole family will be visiting Beijing. (It’s Cee Cee’s first experience with traveling by plane, but the author doesn’t dwell on the 16-hour flight.) The family is greeted at the Beijing airport by Cee Cee’s uncle Phil, who will be the family’s guide during their two-night stay. First up, handmade noodles made to order at Uncle Phil’s favorite restaurant. Then, after a long drive into the mountains, a visit to the Great Wall of China, where an enthusiastic tour guide offers some history about the structure’s origins and dimensions. Author Eyunni, an American journalist living in China, throws in a welcome bit of suspense when camera-toting Cee Cee wanders “in search of the perfect shot” and loses sight of her family: “Tears began to well up in her eyes. All of a sudden she felt very small and very alone.” A kind, elderly man offers comfort and soon spots the bright red hats Cee Cee’s parents are wearing. Adventures the following day include a visit to a market with hundreds of colorful stalls, watching tai chi practitioners in a park, rolling dough for dumplings, learning to use chopsticks, and Cee Cee’s exchanging email addresses with a new friend her own age. The author ends with a hint that a series awaits: “Cee Cee would never forget Beijing, but she knew in her heart that another adventure was just around the corner.” In the minus column: the generic computer-generated look of the uncredited illustrations. Richer visual content would enhance the book’s clean prose and easy educational content.
A pleasant, lightly informative tale that needs a visual upgrade.
Pub Date: June 23, 2014
ISBN: 978-1482335521
Page Count: 38
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Sept. 8, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A quietly powerful story, at times harrowing but ultimately a joy to read.
In this novel, life turns toward a dark horizon for a precocious adolescent grieving for her father in 1941 Tennessee.
It’s difficult to harbor secrets in a rural mountain town of maybe 80 souls, especially when adult siblings live within spitting distance of the family home. Most of the townsmen work at the sawmill, and most of the young women have been harassed at one time or another by creepy Johnny Monroe. But Louisa May McAllister, nicknamed Wildflower, knows that revealing her frequent forays to the cemetery, where she talks to her beloved late father, would only rile her embittered mother. She also knows to hide her “secret sense,” as it would evoke scorn from all save eccentric Aunt Sadie, who shares her tomboy niece’s gift. Those secrets come at a cost when, on one of her graveyard visits, Louisa May ignores her premonition of danger. The consequences—somewhat expected yet still horrific—are buffered by the visions into which the 13-year-old escapes. Sharp-witted, strong, curious and distrustful of any authority figure not living up to her standards—including God—Louisa May immerses us in her world with astute observations and wonderfully turned phrases, with nary a cliché to be found. She could be an adolescent Scout Finch, had Scout’s father died unexpectedly and her life taken a bad turn. Though her story is full of pathos and loss, her sorrow is genuine and refreshingly free of self-pity. She accepts that she and her mother are “like vinegar and soda, always reacting,” that her best friend has grown distant, and that despite the preacher’s condemnation, a young suicide victim should be sent “to the head of heaven’s line.” Her connection to the land—a presence as vividly portrayed as any character—makes her compassionate but tough; she’s as willing to see trees as angels as she is to join her brothers-in-law in seeking revenge. By necessity, Louisa May grows up quickly, but by her secret sense, she also understands forgiveness.
A quietly powerful story, at times harrowing but ultimately a joy to read.Pub Date: April 22, 2012
ISBN: 978-0983588238
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Wild Lily Arts
Review Posted Online: June 7, 2012
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
The latest in Sathy’s (Attack of the Chicken Nugget Man: A California CST Adventure, 2009, etc.) series of test prep titles disguises educational tips in a funny middle-grade reader.
Chris Robb’s day is off to an inauspicious start when he accidentally wears his sister’s pink socks to school, and only goes downhill from there. Chris isn’t the best of students and his inability to focus and remember the most basic things—like his teacher’s absurd name, Ms. Bubblebrain—gets him into constant trouble. Between Chris and his colorful cast of classmates, Ms. Bubblebrain can hardly keep order. Scenarios, such as the entire class falling down like a row of dominoes when a panicked Chris runs right into his teacher, are illustrated in a high quality black-and-white cartoon style. The funny, well-illustrated story will likely appeal to struggling readers and is certainly much more entertaining than typical test prep materials. Sample standardized test questions with fill-in circles appear at the end of each chapter to acclimate students to test-taking. Some questions are too easy, but others require students to dig deep. Each question has one overly goofy answer, which might prove a bit too tempting for some students: For the question, “What is the antonym (opposite) of yell?” choice D reads, “I don't know, but this one time, I yelled so loud that my tongue flew out of my mouth and got stuck to the wall in my classroom.” The book is designed to be used either as a read-alone or as a read aloud book by teachers or parents. For this reason, an appendix includes lists of additional activities as well as the core standards, referenced throughout the book by way of superscript notations. The notations might prove distracting to some readers, but are set off in a non-bold font that most readers should be able to ignore. The fill-in style questions, however, make it less than ideal for library use. This fun book uses elements of humorous novels and cartoons to emphasize core elementary standards in a way that will likely appeal to both teachers and students.
Pub Date: March 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0982172940
Page Count: 162
Publisher: Student Solutions, Inc.
Review Posted Online: July 25, 2012
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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