Australian artists Murphy and Potter team up here to depict the story of Pearl Barrett, a budding poet and loner whose...
In this poignantly illustrated novella in free verse, a young girl reckons with the loss of her grandmother.
Australian artists Murphy and Potter team up here to depict the story of Pearl Barrett, a budding poet and loner whose loving household—consisting of her mother, grandmother and herself—gets rocked to the core when she finds her granny “doesn’t remember who we are.” Though Pearl feels “[w]herever I am / no one sees me” and “my poems don’t rhyme / and neither do I,” such feelings of isolation only intensify as she wrestles with sadness, fear and anger on learning her mother is contemplating moving Granny to a nursing facility. When her failing grandmother dies, Pearl learns the important lesson that, through loss, one may not only find compassion but community. Potter’s evocative pencil-and-wash drawings, with their excellent renderings of facial expressions and mood, wonderfully complement Murphy’s thoughtful narrative in depicting the emotions of a scene. Altogether, the tale has much to offer in terms of grappling with personal identity as well as the death of a beloved.Pub Date: Aug. 23, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-7636-4821-3
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: July 5, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
This will appeal to fans of Alexander’s previous middle-grade novels as well as young sports fans.
Building on the great success of his Newbery-winning The Crossover (2014), Alexander provides advice and life lessons to young readers, drawn mostly from the world of sports and organized by a schema of “rules.”
Instead of chapters, the work begins with a preface called “Warm-up: The Rules” and is then divided into the four quarters of a game, each having a theme: “grit,” “motivation,” “focus,” and “teamwork and resilience.” “Passion” is included as a half-time consideration, and there is an “overtime” look at Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. There are brief profiles of athletes Wilma Rudolph, LeBron James, Pelé, and Venus and Serena Williams, along with maxims and personal anecdotes from both male and female sports figures who’ve excelled in different arenas as well as a few nonathletes, including Maya Angelou, Nikki Giovanni, Sonya Sotomayor, and Nelson Mandela. Throughout there is poetry, verses that remind us why Alexander connects with readers. “Rule #45 / A loss is inevitable / like rain in spring. / True champions / learn / to dance / through / the storm.” The advice never feels heavy-handed, and the author's voice shines through. The design is as much a part of the book as its lively text, set in varying font sizes and colors (black, white, or orange), differing layouts, and judicious use of photographs and illustrations.
This will appeal to fans of Alexander’s previous middle-grade novels as well as young sports fans. (Nonfiction. 10-12)Pub Date: Feb. 14, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-544-57097-9
Page Count: 176
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
Desperate to learn to read, 8-year-old Olemaun badgers her father to let her leave her island home to go to the residential school for Inuit children in Aklavik, in Canada’s far north. There she encounters a particularly mean nun who renames her Margaret but cannot “educate” her into submission. The determination and underlying positive nature of this Inuvialuit child shine through the first-person narration that describes her first two years in boarding school, where their regular chores include emptying “honey buckets.” The torments of the nun she calls “Raven” are unrelenting, culminating in her assignment to wear a used pair of ill-fitting red stockings—giving her the mocking name found in the title. The “Margaret” of the story is co-author, along with her daughter-in-law. Opening with a map, the book closes with a photo album, images from her childhood and from archives showing Inuit life at the time. The beautiful design includes thumbnails of these pictures at the appropriate places in the text and Amini-Holmes’ slightly surreal paintings, which capture the alien flavor of these schools for their students. A moving and believable account. (Memoir. 8-12)
Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-55451-247-8
Page Count: 112
Publisher: Annick Press
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2010
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