Readers seeking a genuine refugee voice will be disappointed.
Iliana, the new girl at school, looks at the sky all the time and draws meteors and planets, but she does not smile much and cries sometimes.
Jeannette’s mother encourages her to become friends with Iliana. Jeannette learns that Iliana crossed the sea on a small crowded boat to escape war; that she was cold and hungry; and that her mother comforted her with the idea of looking at the sky, which belongs to everybody. After Jeannette reports this, her mom suggests that she invite Iliana’s family over, where they share more about their frightful displacement story, summarized in the third-person narration. During the visit, Jeannette shows Iliana her telescope, and they gaze up at the sky and clouds, paving the way for a firmer friendship. The story strives to portray refugees as people, giving its characters identifiable names, hobbies, fears, professional lives, and ambitions. However, it grossly fails at doing so by silencing Iliana’s and her family’s voices, instead representing their narratives solely through conversation between Jeannette and her mother or in summary despite their clear ability to communicate with Jeannette and her family. While the stylized illustrations are whimsical and engaging, often thematically speaking to children’s interest in outer space, readers looking for resettled refugees with narrative agency will likely be disheartened.
Readers seeking a genuine refugee voice will be disappointed. (Picture book. 5-9)Pub Date: May 26, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5420-2050-3
Page Count: 36
Publisher: Amazon Crossing Kids
Review Posted Online: Feb. 17, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2020
This outing lacks the sophistication of such category standards as Clementine; here’s hoping English amps things up for...
A gentle voice and familiar pitfalls characterize this tale of a boy navigating the risky road to responsibility.
Gavin is new to his neighborhood and Carver Elementary. He likes his new friend, Richard, and has a typically contentious relationship with his older sister, Danielle. When Gavin’s desire to impress Richard sets off a disastrous chain of events, the boy struggles to evade responsibility for his actions. “After all, it isn’t his fault that Danielle’s snow globe got broken. Sure, he shouldn’t have been in her room—but then, she shouldn’t be keeping candy in her room to tempt him. Anybody would be tempted. Anybody!” opines Gavin once he learns the punishment for his crime. While Gavin has a charming Everyboy quality, and his aversion to Aunt Myrtle’s yapping little dog rings true, little about Gavin distinguishes him from other trouble-prone protagonists. He is, regrettably, forgettable. Coretta Scott King Honor winner English (Francie, 1999) is a teacher whose storytelling usually benefits from her day job. Unfortunately, the pizzazz of classroom chaos is largely absent from this series opener.
This outing lacks the sophistication of such category standards as Clementine; here’s hoping English amps things up for subsequent volumes. (Fiction. 6-9)Pub Date: Dec. 17, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-547-97044-8
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 1, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A charming friendship story and great setup for future books.
Curious about the Big Wide World outside his Sasquatch community, Hugo makes a friend who is of it.
Sasquatch Hugo’s bedroom is inside a cave and possesses the charming feature of a small stream running through it that he can sail his little toy boat on. It’s cool, but he yearns to see the Big Wide World. When he asks his smart friend Gigi if a Sasquatch might become a sailor, she says it’s possible but would be difficult—the primary rule of their people is to not be seen by Humans. Then, in everyone’s favorite Hide and Go Sneak class, which is held outside, a Human appears; Hugo laughs at the sight, drawing Human attention in a taboo-breaking mistake. Shortly after, Hugo’s toy boat floats into the cave with a Human toy—soon, it’s facilitating a pen-pal–type relationship that’s derailed when Hugo confesses to being a Sasquatch and Human Boone, a budding cryptozoologist, doesn’t believe him. How Hugo and Boone resolve this misapprehension and become friends in a joint search for the Ogopogo concludes this series opener. Potter keeps the third-person narrative tightly focused on Hugo’s perspective, and the details she uses to flesh out the Sasquatch world are delightfully playful. Sala’s drawings depict a homey Sasquatch cavern community, Boone as a freckled, white boy, and Hugo as a hairily benevolent behemoth.
A charming friendship story and great setup for future books. (final art unseen) (Fantasy. 5-9)Pub Date: April 10, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4197-2859-4
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Dec. 10, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2018
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