An important, rarely addressed topic in juvenile literature imperfectly handled.
A 12-year-old video gaming prodigy comes to terms with sexism in the gamer world.
Jaden is thrilled when his sponsor, ArcadeStix, invites him to represent them at the next “Cross Ups” tournament in Montreal, where his friend Cali recently moved. But as Cali gets better and better at “Cross Ups,” and Jaden reads some of the creepy messages she’s gotten from other players, he starts to question his assumptions about gaming, girls, and guys. Chiang breaks ground in bringing this discussion to a young audience, and readers will appreciate an apparently diverse cast of characters, with Mandarin-fluent, biracial (Chinese/white) Jaden in the lead and secondary characters with names like Devesh and Tanaka. Disappointingly, though, these characters never really come to life, leaving readers with the feeling of an after-school special. Italicized use of Chinese words seems forced, and Jaden’s mother’s stilted English, in contrast with representations of her conversations in Mandarin, feels clichéd and confusing. Jaden, appropriately clueless from the start, is a tepid protagonist for this story (upon realizing that not all gamers are guys, he thinks of himself as “the new, improved me”) who nonetheless provides the drama’s glib resolution. Cali and Jaden’s sister, Melanie, a golfer, are perhaps the most intriguing characters—too bad they’re filtered through him.
An important, rarely addressed topic in juvenile literature imperfectly handled. (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 11, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-77321-047-6
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Annick Press
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2018
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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