![Shake the Mango Tree [French/English Edition]](https://d1fd687oe6a92y.cloudfront.net/img/user-media/titles/title/cover/923af4e415b54d4fb64f7cdabcf1171e/424f79f14661414c84d7519386ba2d48.jpg.300x0_q85_autocrop.webp)
Age-appropriate, powerful messages of survival, humanity, and hope.
A young boy in the war-torn Congo makes an arduous journey to freedom in Beardsley’s children’s book.
On her dedication page, the author of this illustrated book for elementary and middle school readers makes it clear that Rupat, the young Congolese boy at the narrative’s empathetic center, is based on a real person, one of countless refugees displaced from their homelands by violent conflicts. (Beardsley’s earlier book, 2020’s My Heart in Kenya, explored a similar theme.) The spare but effective story is presented in both English and French. The text in each language is set against background colors complementing the adjacent, full-page, digital illustrations by Muthoni, which are rendered in expressive detail. The book begins in a village in the Congo where young Rupat lives and goes to school. In his yard is a tree heavy with “the sweet, sticky, juicy mangoes” he loves. Rupat’s peaceful life changes when he’s a teenager—civil war erupts, and the ethnic conflict reaches the family farm. Rupat runs from the “fighting and fires,” not knowing if he’ll ever see his family again. Without overt words or images of violence, the author invites readers’ empathy for Rupat’s desperation as his initial flight into the bush becomes a grueling, one-month trek of “two thousand kilometers,” mostly on foot, over the “Mitumba mountains, through valleys, to the edges of savannahs” with other displaced people. (They see wild animals, but “the only danger,” Beardsley chillingly notes, “was the rebel soldiers.”) The narrative is propelled by the determination that keeps Rupat and others heading for a safer life. In the face of hunger, fear, and injury, the discovery of a heavily laden mango tree becomes a moving symbol of hope. Rupat, whose successful later life is also related here, “can still remember” the sound of the falling fruit “meeting the earth, the footsteps of the children as they rushed to gather up the mangoes, the feeling of relief as they ate until their bellies were full.” The author affectingly describes how Rupat can still taste “the sweet, juicy, sticky, slippery yellow fruit. The taste of relief.”
Age-appropriate, powerful messages of survival, humanity, and hope.Pub Date: Feb. 26, 2025
ISBN: 9781038329608
Page Count: 52
Publisher: FriesenPress
Review Posted Online: May 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Trisha is ready to start at a new school, where no one will know she has dyslexia. At first, she is heartbroken to be in Miss Peterson’s special-ed class, aka, “the junkyard.” But Miss Peterson treats the children as anything but junk, showing them that everyone has a unique talent. Polacco’s trademark style is fully present here; her sensitively drawn alter ego shines with depth of feeling. When bullying occurs, Miss Peterson proves her students are worthwhile by planning a junkyard field trip, where they find valuable objects to be used in exciting ways. Trisha’s group repairs a plane, and the class buys an engine for it. Then a beloved class member dies, and the children must find a way to honor him. While the plot meanders somewhat, the characters are appealing, believable and provide a fine portrayal of a truly special class. Children will be drawn in by the story’s warmth and gentle humor and will leave with a spark of inspiration, an appreciation of individual differences and a firm anti-bullying message, all underscored by the author’s note that concludes the book. (Picture book. 7-10)
Pub Date: July 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-399-25078-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: May 31, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2010
An uncomplicated opener, with some funny bits and a clear but not heavy agenda.
Hank Zipzer, poster boy for dyslexic middle graders everywhere, stars in a new prequel series highlighting second-grade trials and triumphs.
Hank’s hopes of playing Aqua Fly, a comic-book character, in the upcoming class play founder when, despite plenty of coaching and preparation, he freezes up during tryouts. He is not particularly comforted when his sympathetic teacher adds a nonspeaking role as a bookmark to the play just for him. Following the pattern laid down in his previous appearances as an older child, he gets plenty of help and support from understanding friends (including Ashley Wong, a new apartment-house neighbor). He even manages to turn lemons into lemonade with a quick bit of improv when Nick “the Tick” McKelty, the sneering classmate who took his preferred role, blanks on his lines during the performance. As the aforementioned bully not only chokes in the clutch and gets a demeaning nickname, but is fat, boastful and eats like a pig, the authors’ sensitivity is rather one-sided. Still, Hank has a winning way of bouncing back from adversity, and like the frequent black-and-white line-and-wash drawings, the typeface is designed with easy legibility in mind.
An uncomplicated opener, with some funny bits and a clear but not heavy agenda. (Fiction. 7-9)Pub Date: Feb. 14, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-448-48239-2
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Grosset & Dunlap
Review Posted Online: Dec. 10, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2014
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