Cinderella Smith cannot keep track of her shoes. It doesn’t seem to matter the type or the brand—she is always searching for missing footwear. The new school year has meant another loss too. Former pals Rosemary W. and Rosemary T. have become such close friends that they have squeezed Cinderella out of their tight friendship. The Rosemarys took summer dance class together, got their ears pierced, discovered boys and cell phones and are on their way to becoming the manipulative mean girls of their class. It looks like old friend and neighbor Charlie Prince might be Cinderella’s only buddy. Enter Erin, the new confident girl in the class. She needs Cinderella’s help figuring out her new stepfamily, and she instantly and correctly sizes up the Rosemarys. Together, these new friends figure out the mystery of stepsisters, missing shoes and the joys of tap dancing. Cinderella has a penchant for acting without thinking, causing her mother to arch her eyebrow in disappointment and judgment. Endearingly, though, Cinderella always tries to do the right thing. Though the first-person narration sounds a little too close to the voice of Sara Pennypacker’s Clementine, the richness of this new friendship and the gentle resolution will make readers hope for another installment. (Fiction. 8-11)
Pub Date: April 24, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-06-196423-7
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: April 8, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Move over Ramona Quimby, Portland has another neighbor you have to meet!
Ryan Hart is navigating the fourth grade and all its challenges with determination.
Her mom named her Ryan because it means “king,” and she wanted Ryan to feel powerful every time she heard her name; Ryan knows it means she is a leader. So when changes occur or disaster strikes, budding chef Ryan does her best to find the positive and “make sunshine.” When her dad is laid off from the post office, the family must make adjustments that include moving into a smaller house, selling their car, and changing how they shop for groceries. But Ryan gets to stay at Vernon Elementary, and her mom still finds a way to get her the ingredients she needs to practice new recipes. Her older brother, Ray, can be bossy, but he finds little ways to support her, especially when she is down—as does the whole family. Each episodic chapter confronts Ryan with a situation; intermittently funny, frustrating, and touching, they should be familiar and accessible to readers, as when Ryan fumbles her Easter speech despite careful practice. Ryan, her family, and friends are Black, and Watson continues to bring visibility to both Portland, Oregon, generally and its Black community specifically, making another wonderful contribution that allows Black readers to see themselves and all readers to find a character they can love.
Move over Ramona Quimby, Portland has another neighbor you have to meet! (Fiction. 8-10)Pub Date: April 28, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5476-0056-4
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: Jan. 20, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2020
The journey is even gently funny—Omakayas’s brother spends much of the year with a porcupine on his head. Charming and...
This third entry in the Birchbark House series takes Omakayas and her family west from their home on the Island of the Golden-Breasted Woodpecker, away from land the U.S. government has claimed.
Difficulties abound; the unknown landscape is fraught with danger, and they are nearing hostile Bwaanag territory. Omakayas’s family is not only close, but growing: The travelers adopt two young chimookoman (white) orphans along the way. When treachery leaves them starving and alone in a northern Minnesota winter, it will take all of their abilities and love to survive. The heartwarming account of Omakayas’s year of travel explores her changing family relationships and culminates in her first moon, the onset of puberty. It would be understandable if this darkest-yet entry in Erdrich’s response to the Little House books were touched by bitterness, yet this gladdening story details Omakayas’s coming-of-age with appealing optimism.
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-06-029787-9
Page Count: 208
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2008
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