Young readers should devour this mile-a-minute introduction to Kessie’s bracingly eclectic adolescent life.
In this middle-grade debut, a recently deaf girl moves to the Special Needs class, where she finds unexpected friendship.
Eleven-year-old Kessie is the star pupil of East Bay Primary in St. Lucia. She loves Greek mythology and English idioms, and she’s always playing with language. Kessie has two great problems in life: Though she has a close but stormy relationship with her mum, she’s never known her father. Also, she’s been deaf for three months, the likely permanent result of an ear infection. Add a class bully and a new teacher (Teacher Piper) who seems to despise her, and Kessie’s immediate future looks grim. Then Teacher Haden—whom Kessie loves and wishes would marry her mother—invites her to join his Special Needs class. At first Kessie is insulted. But Teacher Haden tells her of another new girl she won’t want to miss: Milly, a Black albino who knows sign language and also loves Greek mythology. Reluctantly, Kessie agrees to switch. But she soon finds not only that she fits in well with the free spirits of the Special Needs class, but also that her mother and the two teachers have a secret history together. The author writes in the first person and immerses readers in Kessie’s narrative. Kessie’s 11-year-old voice is thoroughly convincing. The only off note comes from the author’s omission of vocative commas (for example: “Try Kessie” rather than “Try, Kessie”; “The piglets need to suckle Haden” rather than “The piglets need to suckle, Haden”), the absence of which doesn’t gel well with Kessie’s voracious appetite for reading and language. Kessie is an in-your-face, somewhat exhausting but always compelling protagonist. Her classmates emerge as quirky, relatable individuals, as do the adult characters. True to the middle-grade world in real life, events in the story pile up quickly and assume momentous importance to their subjects.
Young readers should devour this mile-a-minute introduction to Kessie’s bracingly eclectic adolescent life.Pub Date: Nov. 20, 2023
ISBN: 978-2952838344
Page Count: 223
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
It’s hard to argue with success, but guides that actually do the math will be more useful to budding capitalists.
How to raise money for a coveted poster: put your friends to work!
John, founder of the FUBU fashion line and a Shark Tank venture capitalist, offers a self-referential blueprint for financial success. Having only half of the $10 he needs for a Minka J poster, Daymond forks over $1 to buy a plain T-shirt, paints a picture of the pop star on it, sells it for $5, and uses all of his cash to buy nine more shirts. Then he recruits three friends to decorate them with his design and help sell them for an unspecified amount (from a conveniently free and empty street-fair booth) until they’re gone. The enterprising entrepreneur reimburses himself for the shirts and splits the remaining proceeds, which leaves him with enough for that poster as well as a “brand-new business book,” while his friends express other fiscal strategies: saving their share, spending it all on new art supplies, or donating part and buying a (math) book with the rest. (In a closing summation, the author also suggests investing in stocks, bonds, or cryptocurrency.) Though Miles cranks up the visual energy in her sparsely detailed illustrations by incorporating bright colors and lots of greenbacks, the actual advice feels a bit vague. Daymond is Black; most of the cast are people of color. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
It’s hard to argue with success, but guides that actually do the math will be more useful to budding capitalists. (Picture book. 7-9)Pub Date: March 21, 2023
ISBN: 978-0-593-56727-2
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2023
A fitting farewell, still funny, acute, and positive in its view of human nature even in its 37th episode.
A long-running series reaches its closing chapters.
Having, as Kline notes in her warm valedictory acknowledgements, taken 30 years to get through second and third grade, Harry Spooger is overdue to move on—but not just into fourth grade, it turns out, as his family is moving to another town as soon as the school year ends. The news leaves his best friend, narrator “Dougo,” devastated…particularly as Harry doesn’t seem all that fussed about it. With series fans in mind, the author takes Harry through a sort of last-day-of-school farewell tour. From his desk he pulls a burned hot dog and other items that featured in past episodes, says goodbye to Song Lee and other classmates, and even (for the first time ever) leads Doug and readers into his house and memento-strewn room for further reminiscing. Of course, Harry isn’t as blasé about the move as he pretends, and eyes aren’t exactly dry when he departs. But hardly is he out of sight before Doug is meeting Mohammad, a new neighbor from Syria who (along with further diversifying a cast that began as mostly white but has become increasingly multiethnic over the years) will also be starting fourth grade at summer’s end, and planning a written account of his “horrible” buddy’s exploits. Finished illustrations not seen.
A fitting farewell, still funny, acute, and positive in its view of human nature even in its 37th episode. (Fiction. 7-9)Pub Date: Nov. 27, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-451-47963-1
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Sept. 16, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2018
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