by Sara Nickerson ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 21, 2015
Heart-rendingly unflagging in the face of life-changing events, Missy’s a funny, compelling heroine that readers will cheer...
Twelve-year-old Missy narrates a summer full of tumultuous change, from her first job to her father’s remarriage.
Together, Missy and brother Patrick, almost 14, have weathered their parents’ two-year separation. (Brother Claude, nearly 3, doesn’t remember life before the Parenting Plan.) Missy’s two best friends head off to camp—too costly an option for her family. Patrick, intent on remaking his skinny-guy image with new school clothes, spies an ad for blueberry-picking jobs for kids. After persuading each parent, the siblings begin several life-changing weeks at a nearby farm. Missy becomes an expert picker, while Patrick becomes smitten with Shauna; their growing romance between the rows infuriates Missy. Shrouded by a towering hedge and some heavily foreshadowed mystery, the farm, owned by taciturn Moose and wife Bev, has long been divided in two—Moose’s estranged brother farms next door. This subplot—in which Missy discovers the secret of the brothers’ enmity—is the novel’s weak element, relying for its advance on implausibly candid confidences that Moose, Bev, and field boss Al share with Missy. It’s Missy’s feisty, utterly believable narration that shines through here. As friends change and her family morphs again, Missy, with her mother’s subtle guidance, gradually accepts the inevitable with a newly emerging grace.
Heart-rendingly unflagging in the face of life-changing events, Missy’s a funny, compelling heroine that readers will cheer for. (Fiction. 10-13)Pub Date: July 21, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-525-42654-7
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: March 16, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2015
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by Stacy McAnulty ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 2020
Cinematic, over-the-top decadence, a tense race against time, and lessons on what’s truly valuable.
A reward of $5,000,000 almost ruins everything for two seventh graders.
On a class trip to New York City, Felix and Benji find a wallet belonging to social media billionaire Laura Friendly. Benji, a well-off, chaotic kid with learning disabilities, swipes $20 from the wallet before they send it back to its owner. Felix, a poor, shy, rule-follower, reluctantly consents. So when Laura Friendly herself arrives to give them a reward for the returned wallet, she’s annoyed. To teach her larcenous helpers a lesson, Laura offers them a deal: a $20,000 college scholarship or slightly over $5 million cash—but with strings attached. The boys must spend all the money in 30 days, with legal stipulations preventing them from giving anything away, investing, or telling anyone about it. The glorious windfall quickly grows to become a chore and then a torment as the boys appear increasingly selfish and irresponsible to the adults in their lives. They rent luxury cars, hire a (wonderful) philosophy undergrad as a chauffeur, take their families to Disney World, and spend thousands on in-app game purchases. Yet, surrounded by hedonistically described piles of loot and filthy lucre, the boys long for simpler fundamentals. The absorbing spending spree reads like a fun family film, gleefully stuffed with the very opulence it warns against. Major characters are White.
Cinematic, over-the-top decadence, a tense race against time, and lessons on what’s truly valuable. (mathematical explanations) (Fiction. 10-12)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-17525-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: June 29, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2020
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by Stacy McAnulty ; illustrated by Claire Keane
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by Stacy McAnulty ; illustrated by Nicole Miles
by Johnnie Christmas ; illustrated by Johnnie Christmas ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 17, 2022
Problem-solving through perseverance and friendship is the real win in this deeply smart and inspiring story.
Leaving Brooklyn behind, Black math-whiz and puzzle lover Bree starts a new life in Florida, where she’ll be tossed into the deep end in more ways than one. Keeping her head above water may be the trickiest puzzle yet.
While her dad is busy working and training in IT, Bree struggles at first to settle into Enith Brigitha Middle School, largely due to the school’s preoccupation with swimming—from the accomplishments of its namesake, a Black Olympian from Curaçao, to its near victory at the state swimming championships. But Bree can’t swim. To illustrate her anxiety around this fact, the graphic novel’s bright colors give way to gray thought bubbles with thick, darkened outlines expressing Bree’s deepest fears and doubts. This poignant visual crowds some panels just as anxious feelings can crowd the thoughts of otherwise star students like Bree. Ultimately, learning to swim turns out to be easy enough with the help of a kind older neighbor—a Black woman with a competitive swimming past of her own as well as a rich and bittersweet understanding of Black Americans’ relationship with swimming—who explains to Bree how racist obstacles of the past can become collective anxiety in the present. To her surprise, Bree, with her newfound water skills, eventually finds herself on the school’s swim team, navigating competition, her anxiety, and new, meaningful relationships.
Problem-solving through perseverance and friendship is the real win in this deeply smart and inspiring story. (Graphic fiction. 10-13)Pub Date: May 17, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-06-305677-0
Page Count: 256
Publisher: HarperAlley
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2022
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