Eight-year-old Sara Simpson wants to do something extra-ordinary, but she thinks she’s the most normal girl on the planet. She trades names with a friend in class when they have a substitute teacher, but that only results in a lower spelling-test grade. She thinks having a middle name will help, but her friends make suggestions like “Tornado” and “Taco.” Her dad calls her the “Idea Girl,” and she finally comes up with the perfect idea for saving her favorite restaurant. It not only works, but it also fulfills her wish that people would say, “Here comes Sarah Simpson!” Newbery Award–winning author Naylor enters Amber Brown territory with her newest series Simply Sarah. Sarah’s a spunky, creative girl with a multicultural group of friends living in Chicago. Her mother’s an artist and her father is away on business. Ramsey’s watercolor illustrations are a nice complement even if they don’t match the text in a couple places. The shelves might be full of similar series, but Sarah should find her fans with a little help. (Fiction 7-10)
Pub Date: April 1, 2005
ISBN: 0-7614-5182-X
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Marshall Cavendish
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2005
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Third-grader Chelsea's divorced mother has always told her to stand up for herself, but Chelsea has found it easier to let others take charge; however, now it's time for action. When the fifth-grade boys steal a Barbie doll head and use it for a game of catch, Chelsea demolishes most of one boy's lunch, reforming him on the spot. Screwing up her courage, she asks her father to read to her on their single weekend together. She discovers that her friendship with one girl can survive a few criticisms; she faces down another friend who wants to take advantage of her usual silence. In fact, Chelsea asserts herself at erratic intervals throughout the book, perhaps most stridently in the first chapter's Barbie incident (not constructive problem-solving but effective). As a result, the ending is anticlimactic, if not repetitive. Still, Chelsea is sweetly self-absorbed and imaginative: a genuine character with problems just her size—and solutions all her own. (Fiction. 7-9)*justify no*
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1991
ISBN: 0-8075-7552-6
Page Count: 157
Publisher: Whitman
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1991
BOOK REVIEW
Krull's second book about her irrepressible heroine takes up the excitement and disappointments of show business. Now happily ensconced with her father in California while her mother works for a year in Japan, Alex is given the chance to audition for a part in rock star Rox Rox's latest video after making a triumphant appearance playing the piano at the fourth- grade Christmas play. In a flash, Alex—who has never previously heard of Rox Rox—goes into overdrive about her coming stardom. When she actually gets the job, her extreme enthusiasm begins to lose her friends and get her in trouble at school for inattention. When she discovers that she has been replaced with Rox's little sister (except for a shot of her hands playing the piano), her disillusionment is total. Alex has much energy, if not common sense, and Krull has a good ear for dialogue—some compensation for routine characters, language, and plot. An acceptable, if undistinguished, addition to young readers' collections. (Fiction. 8-10)
Pub Date: May 1, 1991
ISBN: 0-316-50479-3
Page Count: 60
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1991
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