by Rosemary McCarney ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 4, 2017
Peering into a fractured mirror reflects some hope back.
A glimpse into the lives of child refugees as well as the resilience and endurance they exhibit in many forms.
On the first page, readers see a darkly lit, full-page photograph featuring a group of adults and children bundled up and traveling at night in Croatia. Most of the group stares out at readers, and a line of plain text provides thematic context underneath the photo: “Sometimes scary things happen to good people.” Each page follows this pattern, presenting, for example, a snapshot of a family posing on a road with their belongings in Rwanda or a child at sea near Greece while the accompanying captions attempt to underscore each situation. McCarney (Canada’s ambassador to the U.N. and author of Every Day Is Malala Day, 2014) strings together a series of events occurring in countries as diverse as South Sudan, Hungary, and Iraq into an international quandary. How do children experience life as refugees? In Jordan, two children drag plastic containers behind them as they walk toward a city of tents, while two boys exemplify coolness with one in sunglasses and the other in safety glasses in Cameroon. Though the author aims to highlight a timely issue via sketches of conflict, her first-person narration strives for a universal tone that doesn’t quite match the pictures, which hint at more by not revealing much.
Peering into a fractured mirror reflects some hope back. (Picture book. 5-9)Pub Date: April 4, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-77260-028-5
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Second Story Press
Review Posted Online: Jan. 16, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2017
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by Christina Soontornvat ; illustrated by Barbara Szepesi Szucs ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 25, 2019
A jam-packed opener sure to satisfy lovers of the princess genre.
Ice princess Lina must navigate family and school in this early chapter read.
The family picnic is today. This is not a typical gathering, since Lina’s maternal relatives are a royal family of Windtamers who have power over the weather and live in castles floating on clouds. Lina herself is mixed race, with black hair and a tan complexion like her Asian-presenting mother’s; her Groundling father appears to be a white human. While making a grand entrance at the castle of her grandfather, the North Wind, she fails to successfully ride a gust of wind and crashes in front of her entire family. This prompts her stern grandfather to ask that Lina move in with him so he can teach her to control her powers. Desperate to avoid this, Lina and her friend Claudia, who is black, get Lina accepted at the Hilltop Science and Arts Academy. Lina’s parents allow her to go as long as she does lessons with grandpa on Saturdays. However, fitting in at a Groundling school is rough, especially when your powers start freak winter storms! With the story unfurling in diary format, bright-pink–highlighted grayscale illustrations help move the plot along. There are slight gaps in the storytelling and the pacing is occasionally uneven, but Lina is full of spunk and promotes self-acceptance.
A jam-packed opener sure to satisfy lovers of the princess genre. (Fantasy. 5-8)Pub Date: June 25, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-338-35393-8
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: March 26, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2019
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by Suzy Kline ; illustrated by Amy Wummer ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 27, 2018
A fitting farewell, still funny, acute, and positive in its view of human nature even in its 37th episode.
A long-running series reaches its closing chapters.
Having, as Kline notes in her warm valedictory acknowledgements, taken 30 years to get through second and third grade, Harry Spooger is overdue to move on—but not just into fourth grade, it turns out, as his family is moving to another town as soon as the school year ends. The news leaves his best friend, narrator “Dougo,” devastated…particularly as Harry doesn’t seem all that fussed about it. With series fans in mind, the author takes Harry through a sort of last-day-of-school farewell tour. From his desk he pulls a burned hot dog and other items that featured in past episodes, says goodbye to Song Lee and other classmates, and even (for the first time ever) leads Doug and readers into his house and memento-strewn room for further reminiscing. Of course, Harry isn’t as blasé about the move as he pretends, and eyes aren’t exactly dry when he departs. But hardly is he out of sight before Doug is meeting Mohammad, a new neighbor from Syria who (along with further diversifying a cast that began as mostly white but has become increasingly multiethnic over the years) will also be starting fourth grade at summer’s end, and planning a written account of his “horrible” buddy’s exploits. Finished illustrations not seen.
A fitting farewell, still funny, acute, and positive in its view of human nature even in its 37th episode. (Fiction. 7-9)Pub Date: Nov. 27, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-451-47963-1
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Sept. 16, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2018
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