Olive carries this chapter-book series opener with plenty of spunk and heart.
This young artist is in desperate need of inspiration.
Olive Oh is the youngest in her family. She is bubbly and a bit messy, and she overflows with creativity, which she believes comes from her lucky red beret made by her grandmother. Her days are eventful as she brainstorms innovative strategies to share with her older brother, sister, mother, and grandmother. (Her father passed away when she was a baby.) When her teacher announces a schoolwide art show, Olive is excited at her chance to prove she’s a real artist. However, her lack of ideas, even with the help of her red beret, for the theme “Portraits” grows concerning, especially when her supposedly nonartistic best friend, Marcus Wong, comes up with one before her. As the rest of her peers move forward with their own submissions, Olive starts to question her inspirations and artistic abilities. Eventually some introspection helps her find clarity. Illustrator Bartel provides bold black-and-white cartoons with pops of color that are interspersed throughout the text. Kim touches on themes of identity and family—hers is Korean American, while Marcus’ is Chinese American—while writing characters with plenty of spark and embedding cultural terms within her evenly paced narrative. Readers will be amused as those around Olive are unwittingly drawn into her well-meaning messes. Sequel Olive Oh Saves Saturday publishes simultaneously.
Olive carries this chapter-book series opener with plenty of spunk and heart. (discussion questions) (Fiction. 6-9)Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-63163-567-0
Page Count: 112
Publisher: Jolly Fish Press
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2021
A fitting farewell, still funny, acute, and positive in its view of human nature even in its 37th episode.
A long-running series reaches its closing chapters.
Having, as Kline notes in her warm valedictory acknowledgements, taken 30 years to get through second and third grade, Harry Spooger is overdue to move on—but not just into fourth grade, it turns out, as his family is moving to another town as soon as the school year ends. The news leaves his best friend, narrator “Dougo,” devastated…particularly as Harry doesn’t seem all that fussed about it. With series fans in mind, the author takes Harry through a sort of last-day-of-school farewell tour. From his desk he pulls a burned hot dog and other items that featured in past episodes, says goodbye to Song Lee and other classmates, and even (for the first time ever) leads Doug and readers into his house and memento-strewn room for further reminiscing. Of course, Harry isn’t as blasé about the move as he pretends, and eyes aren’t exactly dry when he departs. But hardly is he out of sight before Doug is meeting Mohammad, a new neighbor from Syria who (along with further diversifying a cast that began as mostly white but has become increasingly multiethnic over the years) will also be starting fourth grade at summer’s end, and planning a written account of his “horrible” buddy’s exploits. Finished illustrations not seen.
A fitting farewell, still funny, acute, and positive in its view of human nature even in its 37th episode. (Fiction. 7-9)Pub Date: Nov. 27, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-451-47963-1
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Sept. 16, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An awesome-tastic invitation to have or share thoughts about bad and better choices.
Actor Tatum’s effervescent heroine steals a friend’s toy and then lies about it.
Thrilled about an upcoming play date with new classmate Wyatt, Sparkella considers her own sparkly stuffies, games, and accessories and silently decides that he’d be more interested in her friend Tam’s remote-controlled minicar. While she and Tam are playing together, Sparkella takes the car when Tam isn’t looking. Tam melts down at school the next day, and Sparkella, seeing her “bestest friend” losing her sparkle, feels “icky, oogy, and blech.” And when Wyatt comes over, he turns out to be far more entranced by glittery goods than some old car. When Sparkella yells at him—“WYATT, YOU HAVE TO PLAY WITH THIS CAR RIGHT NOW!”—her dad overhears and asks where the toy came from…and along with being a thief, Sparkella turns out to be the worst. Liar. Ever. She eventually confesses (her dad forgives her), apologizes (ditto Wyatt and even Tam), and goes on to take part in a three-way play date/sparklefest. Her absolution may come with unlikely ease, but it’s comfortingly reassuring, and her model single dad does lay down a solid parental foundation by allowing that everyone makes mistakes and stressing that she is “never going to be punished for telling the truth in this house.” He and Sparkella present White, a previous entry cued brown-skinned Tam as Asian, and Wyatt has brown skin in Barnes’ candy-hued pictures. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
An awesome-tastic invitation to have or share thoughts about bad and better choices. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: May 30, 2023
ISBN: 9781250750778
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: Feb. 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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