For fans of Wonder looking for more ways to appreciate tolerance and diversity.
The author of Bubble (2017) once again engages preteens’ emotional intelligence, this time tackling bullying and mental illness from dual perspectives.
Alex’s OCD makes him see and feel germs everywhere, so he wears gloves in public, which often makes him a target of bullying—his private “Worry Lists” don’t seem to keep his phobias from multiplying. Meanwhile, Dan adores and always followed his big brother, Ben, but when Ben had to go away (exactly why and where become a light mystery), Dan fell under the spell of bully Sophie, who makes Alex her primary target. Dan unconsciously tries to hide his hurt and anger about Ben by working on a raft the two had begun. In short, alternating first-person chapters, the two Year Seven British boys give readers access to their inner thoughts and pain. When their friendly mums arrange for them to work on Dan’s raft together, Alex must confront his debilitating phobias and Dan must hide the relationship from Sophie. As work together slowly turns into mutual understanding and finally, friendship, readers also see the causes and effects of both bullying and empathy. The high tension and realism (including pop culture, family dynamics, etc.) will keep the interest of avid and reluctant readers alike. Alex, Dan, and Sophie all appear to be white, and the book assumes the white default.
For fans of Wonder looking for more ways to appreciate tolerance and diversity. (Fiction. 9-13)Pub Date: Sept. 4, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-316-41685-6
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: May 22, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic.
Chainani works an elaborate sea change akin to Gregory Maguire’s Wicked (1995), though he leaves the waters muddied.
Every four years, two children, one regarded as particularly nice and the other particularly nasty, are snatched from the village of Gavaldon by the shadowy School Master to attend the divided titular school. Those who survive to graduate become major or minor characters in fairy tales. When it happens to sweet, Disney princess–like Sophie and her friend Agatha, plain of features, sour of disposition and low of self-esteem, they are both horrified to discover that they’ve been dropped not where they expect but at Evil and at Good respectively. Gradually—too gradually, as the author strings out hundreds of pages of Hogwarts-style pranks, classroom mishaps and competitions both academic and romantic—it becomes clear that the placement wasn’t a mistake at all. Growing into their true natures amid revelations and marked physical changes, the two spark escalating rivalry between the wings of the school. This leads up to a vicious climactic fight that sees Good and Evil repeatedly switching sides. At this point, readers are likely to feel suddenly left behind, as, thanks to summary deus ex machina resolutions, everything turns out swell(ish).
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic. (Fantasy. 11-13)Pub Date: May 14, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-06-210489-2
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
A real gem.
A 10-year old girl learns to adjust to a strange town, makes some fascinating friends, and fills the empty space in her heart thanks to a big old stray dog in this lyrical, moving, and enchanting book by a fresh new voice.
India Opal’s mama left when she was only three, and her father, “the preacher,” is absorbed in his own loss and in the work of his new ministry at the Open-Arms Baptist Church of Naomi [Florida]. Enter Winn-Dixie, a dog who “looked like a big piece of old brown carpet that had been left out in the rain.” But, this dog had a grin “so big that it made him sneeze.” And, as Opal says, “It’s hard not to immediately fall in love with a dog who has a good sense of humor.” Because of Winn-Dixie, Opal meets Miss Franny Block, an elderly lady whose papa built her a library of her own when she was just a little girl and she’s been the librarian ever since. Then, there’s nearly blind Gloria Dump, who hangs the empty bottle wreckage of her past from the mistake tree in her back yard. And, Otis, oh yes, Otis, whose music charms the gerbils, rabbits, snakes and lizards he’s let out of their cages in the pet store. Brush strokes of magical realism elevate this beyond a simple story of friendship to a well-crafted tale of community and fellowship, of sweetness, sorrow and hope. And, it’s funny, too.
A real gem. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: March 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-7636-0776-2
Page Count: 182
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2000
SEEN & HEARD
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