A delightful read that well captures the exuberance of youth.
In this colorful children’s book, a young girl describes her idyllic life on Lake Ontario in 1960s New York.
Welcome to the world of a 4-year-old “Lake Girl,” whose bedroom-window view is an expansive lake. Adventures often wait in her backyard; she spends all day walking on the beach, plays football with her brothers in the fall, and watches the loud, mesmerizing Fourth of July fireworks show. This book guides readers through the seasons. Winter, for one, is the only time for making snow angels and “snowman friends,” while the Lake Girl’s brothers play ice hockey on the frozen lake. But in the sun-baked days of summer, she can draw chalk pictures on the sidewalk and go for a round of hopscotch solo. Fun, however, isn’t just for the outside; inside is where she bakes cookies with Mom, enjoys dress-up in her parents’ room, or cozies up with her “girl cousins” at Thanksgiving. Agness and Toma ably depict the mindset of a child at preschool age. For example, the young narrator may be unnerved by a thunderstorm, but she’s never too scared to try new things, like water skiing. She showcases an infectious spiritedness and revels in a family that’s unquestionably warm and loving. Many of her one-page escapades are entertaining, although the best is an early one, in which the Lake Girl runs away to sail on a pretty sailboat. She grabs her pink suitcase and a Mom-made sandwich and announces she’s running away before heading out (spoiler alert: She doesn’t get far). The illustrations, courtesy of Toma, are full-color spectacles, including many expansive spreads. Despite such sights as a huge, ever-present lake and lots of fireworks exploding in the sky, none of it overshadows the narrator. This short book even includes full recipes for cut-out cookies and frosting.
A delightful read that well captures the exuberance of youth.Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2024
ISBN: 9798890273789
Page Count: 66
Publisher: Dorrance Publishing Co.
Review Posted Online: July 22, 2025
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
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story.
A home-renovation project is interrupted by a family of wrens, allowing a young girl an up-close glimpse of nature.
Renata and her father enjoy working on upgrading their bathroom, installing a clawfoot bathtub, and cutting a space for a new window. One warm night, after Papi leaves the window space open, two wrens begin making a nest in the bathroom. Rather than seeing it as an unfortunate delay of their project, Renata and Papi decide to let the avian carpenters continue their work. Renata witnesses the birth of four chicks as their rosy eggs split open “like coats that are suddenly too small.” Renata finds at a crucial moment that she can help the chicks learn to fly, even with the bittersweet knowledge that it will only hasten their exits from her life. Rosen uses lively language and well-chosen details to move the story of the baby birds forward. The text suggests the strong bond built by this Afro-Latinx father and daughter with their ongoing project without needing to point it out explicitly, a light touch in a picture book full of delicate, well-drawn moments and precise wording. Garoche’s drawings are impressively detailed, from the nest’s many small bits to the developing first feathers on the chicks and the wall smudges and exposed wiring of the renovation. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at actual size.)
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: March 16, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-12320-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021
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