A valuable, well-considered tool for navigating a child’s early education.
A Spanish-language guide for parents of elementary school students in the United States.
The target audience of debut author Navas’ book is the parents of students in kindergarten through fifth grade (i.e., elementary school in the U.S.). Her goal is to furnish a simple, easy-to-use guide that Spanish-speaking caregivers can consult when navigating their children’s education. The opening chapters explain how the school system operates and define key terms and concepts, including public and Montessori schools. Navas addresses how readers can help their children succeed, such as asking open-ended questions (inquire about the best and worst parts of their day), and outlines important concepts, including grading systems. She playfully observes, “¡La nota ‘F’ no significa fantástico!” (A grade of “F” doesn’t mean fantastic!). The wide-ranging guide also covers noticing symptoms of depression in young people and preventing a “Summer Slide,” where students lose some of their academic skills, during their off-season from school. The author wisely reminds parents, “¡Las familias son los primeros maestros de sus hijos y el hogar es su primera aula!” (Families are their children’s first teachers and the home is their first classroom), and she helps them maintain their roles as educators. For those unfamiliar with the American school system, the book is an ideal starting point. Chapters get to the point quickly, resulting in a manageable length of under 300 pages. Still, some tips lean toward the obvious; for example, one should eliminate distractions while their children do their homework, or when reading to a child, it’s best to pick books that interest them. Nevertheless, the work is indispensable for those who need a primer on education, whether at home or in school.
A valuable, well-considered tool for navigating a child’s early education.Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2025
ISBN: 9798992993400
Page Count: 254
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Oct. 1, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An intriguing but uneven family memoir and travelogue.
An author’s trip to Venice takes a distinctly Borgesian turn.
In November 2020, soccer club Venizia F.C. offered Nigerian American author Madu a writing residency as part of its plan “to turn the team into a global entity of fashion, culture, and sports.” Flying to Venice for the fellowship, he felt guilty about leaving his immigrant parents, who were shocked to learn upon moving to the U.S. years earlier that their Nigerian teaching certifications were invalid, forcing his father to work as a stocking clerk at Rite Aid to support the family. Madu’s experiences in Venice are incidental to what is primarily a story about his family, especially his strained relationship with his father, who was disappointed with many of his son’s choices. Unfortunately, the author’s seeming disinterest in Venice renders much of the narrative colorless. He says the trip across the Ponte della Libertà bridge was “magical,” but nothing he describes—the “endless water on both sides,” the nearby seagulls—is particularly remarkable. Little in the text conveys a sense of place or the unique character of his surroundings. Madu is at his best when he focuses on family dynamics and his observations that, in the largely deserted city, “I was one of the few Black people around.” He cites Borges, giving special note to the author’s “The House of Asterion,” in which the minotaur “explains his situation as a creature and as a creature within the labyrinth” of multiple mirrors. This notion leads to the Borgesian turn in the book’s second half, when, in an extended sequence, Madu imagines himself transformed into a minotaur, with “the head of a bull” and his body “larger, thicker, powerful but also cumbersome.” It’s an engaging passage, although stylistically out of keeping with much of what has come before.
An intriguing but uneven family memoir and travelogue.Pub Date: April 2, 2024
ISBN: 9781953368669
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Belt Publishing
Review Posted Online: Nov. 17, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2023
Of most interest to dyed-in-the-wool lovers or haters.
“Not a Cinderella story.”
Baldwin’s loosely written memoir is about motherhood and pregnancy loss, marriage to a celebrity, being the target of gossip and criticism, the experiences of neurodivergency and bilingualism, and more. “When Alec and I met, I was twenty-seven and he was fifty-three,” she writes. “Now, it’s nearly a decade and a half later….People always ask me: What is life actually like with seven kids (and an Alec)? It’s amazing and chaotic.” This book comes on the heels of the first season of the family’s reality show, The Baldwins, seemingly designed to answer the same burning question. While the author seems like a nice, well-meaning person, one comes away from this memoir hoping the television version, with the story sculpted by professionals, is the more entertaining response. Given the fact that there has been controversy about Baldwin’s background, perhaps she should have written a straightforward autobiography. But she has not, and the reader might need to do some research to understand the nature of some of the attacks she writes about. The veracity of her Spanish identity has come under fire, as her birth name is Hilary, she was born in Boston, and is not of Latine descent—but you won’t learn those facts from this book. The author’s relative youth, her choice to have her sixth child via surrogate, and Alec Baldwin’s involvement in the death of a colleague on a film set have all been media fodder. She discusses several specific nemeses without naming them, which is not very interesting. “I grapple with the question: Why am I here in the public space? Why am I ‘relevant’? Am I here because an actor fell in love with me? Am I here because I’m a yoga teacher and have things to say about mental and physical health? Am I here because I had a lot of kids?” It’s not clear that she knows, and neither will you.
Of most interest to dyed-in-the-wool lovers or haters.Pub Date: May 6, 2025
ISBN: 9781668009987
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 6, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2025
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