Imagine being able to go back in time—just 15 minutes—to undo something you did or said. That’s what seventh-grader Casey can do with his grandfather’s old watch. It allows him to say the right thing instead of the wrong thing to girls, to elude a bully’s daily dunking and to be at the right place in the right time on the football field. This engaging premise is tricked out with a snappy cover, obtrusive design, inclusion of familiar boy-author names, and occasional opportunities for the reader to add to the story—but it doesn’t need those bells and whistles. Casey is an appealing and well-developed character, the plot moves along swiftly, once it gets going, and the story ends happily with our hero beginning to understand the bully as well as to cope with his bullying ways. An easy sell for fifth- and sixth-graders. (Fiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: July 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-06-072508-7
Page Count: 176
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2006
BOOK REVIEW
A colorful cast in which even the ferocious Silversides comes in for a dash or two of sympathy, plus a plot replete with, of...
Avi elaborates on the “city mouse, country mouse” theme in this rousing prequel to Poppy (1995), starring Poppy’s ill-fated beau.
Impelled by wanderlust to hop a train to who-knows-where, Ragweed ends up in the rundown part of Amperville, where the local mice (all named after car parts) are being terrorized by Felines Enraged About Rodents (F.E.A.R.), a two-cat extermination squad led by evil-tempered Silversides. After several brushes with death, Ragweed defiantly teams up with Clutch, green-furred lead guitarist for the B-Flat Tires, to open a dance club for mice only, then in the climax organizes a devastating counterattack that sends F.E.A.R. scurrying out of town. In the end, though, Ragweed opts for the country life (little knowing that it’s going to be sweet but short).
A colorful cast in which even the ferocious Silversides comes in for a dash or two of sympathy, plus a plot replete with, of course, narrow squeaks will keep readers turning the pages, while Floca’s scenes of tiny mice fleeing looming, toothy predators add more than a touch of drama .(Fiction. 10-12)Pub Date: May 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-380-97690-0
Page Count: 178
Publisher: Avon/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 1999
A truly #BlackGirlMagic, cloudy-day, curl-up kind of book.
Maya knows her father’s stories aren’t real—are they?
Maya, a comic-book–loving, anemic 12-year-old Black girl, is suffering through situational math when she experiences a sudden, time-stopped moment when “the color bled from the world like someone was sucking it away through a straw.” That is not the only strange incident: Maya has an all-too-real dream of a man with skin “the color of the moon” and “pale violet eyes” who has the same color-sucking ability; her structural engineer papa literally disappears in front of her; and when she and her friends Frankie and Eli find themselves fighting shape-shifting darkbringers, Frankie discovers her own light-shooting skills. What Maya, Frankie, Eli, and readers find out from Maya’s mother is that Papa’s real identity is Elegguá, the most powerful of the West African orishas, guardian of the veil between this world and those of the darkbringers and other forces. Not only that, but Frankie’s newly found gift came from her late mother, who is also an orisha, and Eli is part orisha, too. The astonishing series of subsequent revelations leaves readers agog, eager to know how Maya and her pals will use their powers to heal the veil and save their mostly Black and brown neighborhood. In her author’s note, Barron describes how this book has risen from her explorations of the traditions of her West African ancestors.
A truly #BlackGirlMagic, cloudy-day, curl-up kind of book. (Fantasy. 10-12)Pub Date: Sept. 22, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-328-63518-1
Page Count: 304
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 25, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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