The friendship fixes may be simplistic, but this book has an endearing lead.
Isabelle grapples with guilt and friendship as she works through Fairy Godmother Training, Level Two.
Isabelle’s in a funk because Nora has forgotten her, even though Isabelle broke the rules and left a stolen jar of magic-making sparkles for Nora to remember and contact her with. Level Two brings about massive changes, though: there’s a crackdown on saving excess sparkles (and sudden rationing), and Grandmomma is leaving the training center to investigate sparkle discrepancies and magical irregularities (Isabelle fears she’s responsible). Missing Nora, Isabelle attempts to befriend her classmates but is bullied and ostracized. Then, she gets her practice princess—Samantha, a former friend of Nora’s—and worries that Samantha’s happiness will come at the cost of Nora’s. Sure enough, Samantha isn’t a particularly pleasant girl, and both she and Nora dream of being in a big school play. Isabelle bends rules to help Nora out, until Samantha finally wishes for Nora to bungle her performance. Aronson neatly explores girl-on-girl nastiness in both faery-godmother school and human school, and the many quandaries Isabelle finds herself in make her easy to relate to. Details such as Grandmomma’s “fairy godmother bling” and the girlgoyles Isabelle likes to hide among make for fizzy magical worldbuilding. Racial descriptors are mostly avoided, and Isabelle, Nora, and Samantha all seem to be white; diversity is mostly cued with naming conventions.
The friendship fixes may be simplistic, but this book has an endearing lead. (Fantasy. 6-9)Pub Date: Dec. 26, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-545-94159-4
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Sept. 17, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A funny and timely primer for budding activists.
Problems are afoot at Emily Dickinson Elementary School, and it’s up to Bea Garcia to gather the troops and fight.
Bea Garcia and her best friend, Judith Einstein, sit every day under the 250-year-old oak tree in their schoolyard and imagine a face in its trunk. They name it “Emily” after their favorite American poet. Bea loves to draw both real and imagined pictures of their favorite place—the squirrels in the tree, the branches that reach for the sky, the view from the canopy even though she’s never climbed that high. Until the day a problem boy does climb that high, pelting the kids with acorns and then getting stuck. Bert causes such a scene that the school board declares Emily a nuisance and decides to chop it down. Bea and Einstein rally their friends with environmental facts, poetry, and artwork to try to convince the adults in their lives to change their minds. Bea must enlist Bert if she wants her plan to succeed. Can she use her imagination and Bert’s love of monsters to get him in line? In Bea’s fourth outing, Zemke gently encourages her protagonist to grow from an artist into an activist. Her energy and passion spill from both her narration and her frequent cartoons, which humorously extend the text. Spanish-speaking Bea’s Latinx, Einstein and Bert present white, and their classmates are diverse.
A funny and timely primer for budding activists. (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 6-9)Pub Date: May 14, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-7352-2941-9
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: March 16, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A lesson that never grows old, enacted with verve by two favorite friends
Gerald the elephant learns a truth familiar to every preschooler—heck, every human: “Waiting is not easy!”
When Piggie cartwheels up to Gerald announcing that she has a surprise for him, Gerald is less than pleased to learn that the “surprise is a surprise.” Gerald pumps Piggie for information (it’s big, it’s pretty, and they can share it), but Piggie holds fast on this basic principle: Gerald will have to wait. Gerald lets out an almighty “GROAN!” Variations on this basic exchange occur throughout the day; Gerald pleads, Piggie insists they must wait; Gerald groans. As the day turns to twilight (signaled by the backgrounds that darken from mauve to gray to charcoal), Gerald gets grumpy. “WE HAVE WASTED THE WHOLE DAY!…And for WHAT!?” Piggie then gestures up to the Milky Way, which an awed Gerald acknowledges “was worth the wait.” Willems relies even more than usual on the slightest of changes in posture, layout and typography, as two waiting figures can’t help but be pretty static. At one point, Piggie assumes the lotus position, infuriating Gerald. Most amusingly, Gerald’s elephantine groans assume weighty physicality in spread-filling speech bubbles that knock Piggie to the ground. And the spectacular, photo-collaged images of the Milky Way that dwarf the two friends makes it clear that it was indeed worth the wait.
A lesson that never grows old, enacted with verve by two favorite friends . (Early reader. 6-8)Pub Date: Nov. 4, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4231-9957-1
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Hyperion
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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