Eye-opening and heartwarming.
A sixth grader with cerebral palsy learns that magic takes many forms.
Though she’d rather attend a magic school, Lil Evers, who uses a motorized wheelchair and alternates between talking and using a speech device, currently attends the Exceptional Children’s class at Willow Street Middle School. There, Lil and her friends, Scoot and Dora, are segregated from the rest of the student body by the assistant principal, who disguises her ableism as concern for their safety. Undaunted, the friends create their own magic school with their imaginations. When a lucky escape from bullies sparks rumors that the role-playing trio’s magic is real, Willow Street’s students inundate Lil and her friends with good luck charm requests—and the spells seemingly work! But not everyone’s happy. Someone’s following Lil and leaving threatening notes. And in conservative, economically depressed Eden Point, North Carolina, rumors of magic—“the devil’s work”—could lead to the already struggling middle school’s closure. The mother-daughter author duo, one of whom uses a wheelchair and speech device, highlight such topics as education laws while emphasizing the importance of community and hope. Though some secondary characters feel cliched, Lil’s portrayal is refreshingly nuanced; her frustration with augmentative communication and ambivalence about transitioning to mainstreaming are sympathetic, and the bonds among her friend group are endearing. Lil and Dora read white, and Scoot is cued Black and neurodivergent.
Eye-opening and heartwarming. (authors’ note, discussion questions, activities) (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Oct. 21, 2025
ISBN: 9780316581264
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often...
A successful juvenile by the beloved New Yorker writer portrays a farm episode with an imaginative twist that makes a poignant, humorous story of a pig, a spider and a little girl.
Young Fern Arable pleads for the life of runt piglet Wilbur and gets her father to sell him to a neighbor, Mr. Zuckerman. Daily, Fern visits the Zuckermans to sit and muse with Wilbur and with the clever pen spider Charlotte, who befriends him when he is lonely and downcast. At the news of Wilbur's forthcoming slaughter, campaigning Charlotte, to the astonishment of people for miles around, spins words in her web. "Some Pig" comes first. Then "Terrific"—then "Radiant". The last word, when Wilbur is about to win a show prize and Charlotte is about to die from building her egg sac, is "Humble". And as the wonderful Charlotte does die, the sadness is tempered by the promise of more spiders next spring.
The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often informative as amusing, and the whole tenor of appealing wit and pathos will make fine entertainment for reading aloud, too.Pub Date: Oct. 15, 1952
ISBN: 978-0-06-026385-0
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1952
PERSPECTIVES
SEEN & HEARD
Telgemeier’s bold colors, superior visual storytelling, and unusual subject matter will keep readers emotionally engaged and...
Catrina narrates the story of her mixed-race (Latino/white) family’s move from Southern California to Bahía de la Luna on the Northern California coast.
Dad has a new job, but it’s little sister Maya’s lungs that motivate the move: she has had cystic fibrosis since birth—a degenerative breathing condition. Despite her health, Maya loves adventure, even if her lungs suffer for it and even when Cat must follow to keep her safe. When Carlos, a tall, brown, and handsome teen Ghost Tour guide introduces the sisters to the Bahía ghosts—most of whom were Spanish-speaking Mexicans when alive—they fascinate Maya and she them, but the terrified Cat wants only to get herself and Maya back to safety. When the ghost adventure leads to Maya’s hospitalization, Cat blames both herself and Carlos, which makes seeing him at school difficult. As Cat awakens to the meaning of Halloween and Day of the Dead in this strange new home, she comes to understand the importance of the ghosts both to herself and to Maya. Telgemeier neatly balances enough issues that a lesser artist would split them into separate stories and delivers as much delight textually as visually. The backmatter includes snippets from Telgemeier’s sketchbook and a photo of her in Día makeup.
Telgemeier’s bold colors, superior visual storytelling, and unusual subject matter will keep readers emotionally engaged and unable to put down this compelling tale. (Graphic fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 13, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-545-54061-2
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: July 1, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2016
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