A humdrum adventure that muddily tries to convey the notion that all of life’s students are also teachers.
The Applewhites take their untraditional, ramshackle educational show on the road.
In this third in the Applewhites saga, Jake Semple, cured of his rebel ways at their home-school ranch called Wit’s End, remains with the Applewhites. The entire brood embarks on a cross-country competition to prove their brand of experiential, self-driven learning is the best. If they win, there’s both money and reality TV fame to be had. E.D. and Jake’s first kiss hasn’t quite gone as expected, so when trouble arrives in the form of a gorgeous bad-girl named Melody Aiko Bernstein, Jake is struck dumb and E.D. is simmeringly jealous. Jake’s and E.D.’s thoughts are revealed in alternating, third-person–limited chapters, while the rest of the quirky cast play out their roles in the background. The Art Bus goes from assigned stop to assigned stop per the competition’s directive, amid myriad mishaps such as wayward crushes, stolen cars, embarrassing theater performances, minimakeovers, and cockroach infestations. Through sarcastic wit and sweet charm by turns, Melody manipulates the Applewhites, begging the question of everyone’s integrity. This road trip is long and, despite its jumble of events, often tedious. Jake and the Applewhites are white; diversity is mostly conveyed by naming convention, as with Melody’s Japanese middle name and yoga teacher/family cook Govindaswami’s Indian one.
A humdrum adventure that muddily tries to convey the notion that all of life’s students are also teachers. (Fiction. 8-13)Pub Date: Oct. 17, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-06-213320-5
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Aug. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2017
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs.
The Heffley family’s house undergoes a disastrous attempt at home improvement.
When Great Aunt Reba dies, she leaves some money to the family. Greg’s mom calls a family meeting to determine what to do with their share, proposing home improvements and then overruling the family’s cartoonish wish lists and instead pushing for an addition to the kitchen. Before bringing in the construction crew, the Heffleys attempt to do minor maintenance and repairs themselves—during which Greg fails at the work in various slapstick scenes. Once the professionals are brought in, the problems keep getting worse: angry neighbors, terrifying problems in walls, and—most serious—civil permitting issues that put the kibosh on what work’s been done. Left with only enough inheritance to patch and repair the exterior of the house—and with the school’s dismal standardized test scores as a final straw—Greg’s mom steers the family toward moving, opening up house-hunting and house-selling storylines (and devastating loyal Rowley, who doesn’t want to lose his best friend). While Greg’s positive about the move, he’s not completely uncaring about Rowley’s action. (And of course, Greg himself is not as unaffected as he wishes.) The gags include effectively placed callbacks to seemingly incidental events (the “stress lizard” brought in on testing day is particularly funny) and a lampoon of after-school-special–style problem books. Just when it seems that the Heffleys really will move, a new sequence of chaotic trouble and property destruction heralds a return to the status quo. Whew.
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs. (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 8-12)Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3903-3
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Nov. 18, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
This delightful debut welcomes readers in like a house filled with love.
A 13-year-old biracial girl longs to build the house of her dreams.
For Lou Bulosan-Nelson, normal is her “gigantic extended family squished into Lola’s for every holiday imaginable.” She shares a bedroom with her Filipina mother, Minda—a former interior-design major and current nurse-to-be—in Lola Celina’s San Francisco home. From her deceased white father, Michael, Lou inherited “not-so-Filipino features,” his love for architecture, and some land. Lou’s quietude implies her keen eye for details, but her passion for creating with her hands resonates loudly. Pining for something to claim as her own, she plans to construct a house from the ground up. When her mom considers moving out of state for a potential job and Lou’s land is at risk of being auctioned off, Lou stays resilient, gathering support from both friends and family to make her dream a reality. Respicio authentically depicts the richness of Philippine culture, incorporating Filipino language, insights into Lou’s family history, and well-crafted descriptions of customs, such as the birdlike Tinikling dance and eating kamayan style (with one’s hands), throughout. Lou’s story gives voice to Filipino youth, addressing cultural differences, the importance of bayanihan (community), and the true meaning of home.
This delightful debut welcomes readers in like a house filled with love. (Fiction. 8-13)Pub Date: June 12, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5247-1794-0
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Wendy Lamb/Random
Review Posted Online: March 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2018
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