In the spirit of this team’s previous anthologies A Poke in the I (2001) and A Kick in the Head (2005), this collection rounds up 37 quirky poems “chosen because they are terrific candidates for reading aloud,” according to the introduction. Here, the Jabberwock rears its manxome head and “The Owl and the Pussy-Cat” pop up in their pea-green boat, but contemporary voices such as Douglas Florian and Sandra Cisneros join the chorus too. The poems are organized by type, including tongue twisters, poems for two and three voices, bilingual poems and limericks (one of which pluckily rhymes Boise, noisy and New Joisy!). David McCord’s “The Pickety Fence” will have youngsters grabbing sticks and heading out the door: “The pickety fence / The pickety fence / Give it a lick it’s / The pickety fence.” Rebecca Kai Dotlich’s “Where Lizzie Lived: A Haunted Tale” is ripe for reciting in the dead of night. Raschka’s vivacious ink, watercolor and torn-paper illustrations capture the giddy spirit, sound and movement of this playful, sometimes edgy, collection. (Poetry. 8-12)
Pub Date: March 1, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-7636-0663-3
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2009
A powerfully candid and soulful account of an immigrant experience.
A Taiwanese family tries their luck in America.
In this verse novel, it’s 1980, and nearly 11-year-old Ai Shi and her mother prepare to leave Taipei to join her father in California, where he is pursuing a business opportunity with a friend. The extended family send them off, telling Ai Shi she’s so lucky to go to the “beautiful country”—the literal translation of the Chinese name for the U.S. Once they are reunited with Ba, he reveals that they have instead poured their savings into a restaurant in the remote Los Angeles County town of Duarte. Ma and Ba need to learn to cook American food, but at least, despite a betrayal by Ba’s friend, they have their own business. However, the American dream loses its shine as language barriers, isolation, financial stress, and racism take their toll. Ai Shi internalizes her parents’ disappointment in their new country by staying silent about bullying at school and her own unmet needs. Her letters home to her favorite cousin, Mei, maintain that all is well. After a year of enduring unrelenting challenges, including vandalism by local teens, the family reaches its breaking point. Hope belatedly arrives in the form of community allies and a change of luck. Kuo deftly touches on complex issues, such as the human cost of the history between China and Taiwan as well as the socio-economic prejudices and identity issues within Asian American communities.
A powerfully candid and soulful account of an immigrant experience. (Verse historical fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: June 28, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-06-311898-0
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
An emotional and powerful story with soaring poetry.
A fourth grader navigates the complicated world of immigration.
Betita Quintero loves the stories her father tells about the Aztlán (the titular land of cranes), how their people emigrated south but were fabled to return. Betita also loves to write. She considers words like “intonation,” “alchemy,” and “freedom” to be almost magic, using those and other words to create picture poems to paint her feelings, just like her fourth grade teacher, Ms. Martinez, taught her. But there are also words that are scary, like “cartel,” a word that holds the reason why her family had to emigrate from México to the United States. Even though Betita and her parents live in California, a “sanctuary state,” the seemingly constant raids and deportations are getting to be more frequent under the current (unnamed) administration. Thinking her family is safe because they have a “petition…to fly free,” Betita is devastated when her dad is taken away by ICE. Without their father, the lives of the Quinteros, already full of fear and uncertainty, are further derailed when they make the small mistake of missing a highway exit. Salazar’s verse novel presents contemporary issues such as “zero tolerance” policies, internalized racism, and mass deportations through Betita’s innocent and hopeful eyes, making the complex topics easy to understand through passionate, lyrical verses.
An emotional and powerful story with soaring poetry. (Verse fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 15, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-338-34380-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 16, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
SEEN & HEARD
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