A fluffy read for kids who like dance in theory, not in practice.
Can a self-taught dancer make it big in the world of ballet?
Katarina dreams of being a ballerina, but lessons are expensive, so she’s been teaching herself via the internet. Then at the school talent show her dad sees her passion and finally agrees to pay for lessons. Katarina’s first class is difficult and embarrassing, but with the help of a new best friend and encouragement from principal New York City Ballet dancer Tiler Peck (acting as character), Katarina might be able to dance her way to her dream. An endless stream of inspirationally flat dialogue and narration fill the short chapters of this quick read co-written by real-life ballerina Peck and actor Harris. A charming concept gives way to pandering wish fulfillment that may satisfy only readers who don’t know anything about formal dance class, as the passages about ballet are less than believable. Readers should go to either Noel Streatfield’s classic Ballet Shoes (1936) or Maddie Ziegler’s contemporary The Audition (2017) for a more realistic look at dance. The cover depicts Katarina with light brown skin and light brown curls, but Collina’s black-and-white drawings and the lack of any specific racial or cultural details in the text points to an assumed white protagonist with unruly curls. Some supporting characters have diverse names or appearances.
A fluffy read for kids who like dance in theory, not in practice. (Fiction. 8-10)Pub Date: May 5, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5344-5276-3
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: March 14, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2020
Though the writing is clever and there are plenty of amusing incidents included, life lessons and existential truths...
An imaginary friend who yearns to be real learns about life along with the children who conjure him up in a variety of guises.
Cuevas’ episodic story features childlike black-and-white drawings that contrast oddly with the decidedly adult tone of her main character’s musings. Jacques Papier is ostensibly 8 years old when he discovers that he is merely a figment of his “twin sister” Fleur’s imagination. When her parents take her to a psychiatrist, Jacques is stuck in the waiting room, where he meets Mr. Pitiful, Stinky Sock, and a variety of other oddball characters who invite him to the next meeting of Imaginaries Anonymous. With information gleaned there, he sets out on a series of new incarnations, from prisoner/co-conspirator/damsel in distress through perfect pet to best friend and magician’s assistant. New placements are made by the “reassignment office.” The description of this hilariously inefficient bureaucracy would make most adults chuckle knowingly, but it seems unlikely that young readers will get the joke. Between assignments, Jacques exists in a dark limbo, remembering bits and pieces of his previous lives and wondering about the nature of reality.
Though the writing is clever and there are plenty of amusing incidents included, life lessons and existential truths overwhelm everything, suggesting that the audience for this uneasy amalgam of whimsy and wisdom will be small. (Fiction. 8-10)Pub Date: Sept. 8, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-5254-2755-1
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: May 17, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2015
Skip.
Sibling evacuees find a seemingly abandoned baby on a Yorkshire dale.
At the start of World War II, Lizzie, 10, and her 7-year-old brother, Peter, are sent from Hull into the countryside to be fostered with a nearly catatonic woman named Elsie. When Lizzie brings home an infant she finds lying on a blanket in a field, Elsie springs to life, thinking that the baby is her dead child returned. In actuality, the baby is a Roma child reluctantly left behind by her elder brother, Elijah, when brutish Bill forces him to go rabbit hunting. Within hours, many, including the village policeman, know the identity of the baby—whose mother is frantically searching for her—but all independently decide that the baby should stay with the mentally ill woman. Only young Lizzie seems to have any morality. Adults thwart her until, teamed with Elijah, she pulls off a complicated rescue. Illogical plot points and inconsistent characterization doom this debut. Why would Bill endanger an infant? Why would Elijah agree? And if prejudice toward the Roma is the reason the villagers don't return the baby, why don't they realize the baby herself is one? Blackford writes smoothly in third-person chapters that shift between Lizzie (in which Elijah and his people are called Gypsies) and Elijah (in which they are called Travelers), and her historical details are well-done, but she needs to find a better story.
Skip. (Historical fiction. 8-10)Pub Date: Jan. 12, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-544-57099-3
Page Count: 192
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: Sept. 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2015
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