When his parents sign him up for floor hockey, which he hates, third-grader Morgan hesitatingly agrees to his friend Aldeen's plan to switch roles. She will play hockey and he will take piano lessons. Their masquerade is difficult to sustain. This is the author’s tenth book about chunky Morgan, his athletic friend Charlie and Aldeen, “the Godzilla of Grade Three,” characters who will feel familiar even to those who have not read the other stories. In this first-person, plot-driven narrative, told in mostly believable dialogue, Aldeen and Morgan get into increasingly difficult situations, moving toward the point when their deception is revealed and Morgan's parents capitulate, letting him continue with music. The setting is generic—a house with a driveway and basement, a schoolyard and the community center. This is part of the Canadian publisher’s First Novels nine aimed at early readers ready for something slightly more substantial. The print is good-sized and heavily leaded; vocabulary is breezy and appropriate. “Aldeen’s eyes go all squinchy. ‘Then I’ll smoosh you into a hockey puck.’ ” Each of the ten short chapters includes one full-page black-and-white cartoon illustration. These effectively portray the characters and highlight important moments. These provide accessible, comfortable stories for students who’ve moved beyond early readers but are not ready for much greater length or more complexity. (Fiction. 6-9)
Pub Date: March 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-88780-926-2
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Formac
Review Posted Online: Feb. 10, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2011
An uncomplicated opener, with some funny bits and a clear but not heavy agenda.
Hank Zipzer, poster boy for dyslexic middle graders everywhere, stars in a new prequel series highlighting second-grade trials and triumphs.
Hank’s hopes of playing Aqua Fly, a comic-book character, in the upcoming class play founder when, despite plenty of coaching and preparation, he freezes up during tryouts. He is not particularly comforted when his sympathetic teacher adds a nonspeaking role as a bookmark to the play just for him. Following the pattern laid down in his previous appearances as an older child, he gets plenty of help and support from understanding friends (including Ashley Wong, a new apartment-house neighbor). He even manages to turn lemons into lemonade with a quick bit of improv when Nick “the Tick” McKelty, the sneering classmate who took his preferred role, blanks on his lines during the performance. As the aforementioned bully not only chokes in the clutch and gets a demeaning nickname, but is fat, boastful and eats like a pig, the authors’ sensitivity is rather one-sided. Still, Hank has a winning way of bouncing back from adversity, and like the frequent black-and-white line-and-wash drawings, the typeface is designed with easy legibility in mind.
An uncomplicated opener, with some funny bits and a clear but not heavy agenda. (Fiction. 7-9)Pub Date: Feb. 14, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-448-48239-2
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Grosset & Dunlap
Review Posted Online: Dec. 10, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
There’s lots to see and do in this big city.
A set of panoramic views of the urban environment: inside and out, above and belowground, at street level and high overhead.
Thanks to many flaps, pull tabs, spinners, and sliders, viewers can take peeks into stores and apartments, see foliage change through the seasons in a park, operate elevators, make buildings rise and come down, visit museums and municipal offices, take in a film, join a children’s parade, marvel as Christmas decorations go up—even look in on a wedding and a funeral. Balicevic populates each elevated cartoon view with dozens of tiny but individualized residents diverse in age, skin tone, hair color and style, dress, and occupation. He also adds such contemporary touches as an electrical charging station for cars, surveillance cameras, smartphones, and fiber optic cables. Moreover, many flaps conceal diagrammatic views of infrastructure elements like water treatment facilities and sources of electrical power or how products ranging from plate glass and paper to bread, cheese, and T-shirts are manufactured (realistically, none of the workers in the last are white). Baumann’s commentary is largely dispensable, but she does worthily observe on the big final pop-up spread that cities are always changing—often, nowadays, becoming more environmentally friendly.
There’s lots to see and do in this big city. (Informational novelty. 6-9)Pub Date: April 4, 2017
ISBN: 979-1-02760-079-3
Page Count: 22
Publisher: Twirl/Chronicle
Review Posted Online: May 30, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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