A story with a clear message and smart coverage of a timely topic.
A girl learns a lesson about not sharing her online passwords in this picture book from cybersecurity professional Kemal.
Eight-year-old Elham loves playing games on Zokanda, an online platform that uses Coin, a virtual currency, for special in-game features. But when she takes a suspicious online survey to earn Coin, she has to provide her username and password, and soon she’s locked out of the game. At first, she doesn’t want to tell her mom, but she remembers how her parent saved the day when her older brother was hacked. They come up with strategies to keep Elham’s account more secure—and to help her make better choices. Elham then dreams of being a cybersecurity expert who helps other kids. Kemal uses the experiences and names of her children to create a realistic cautionary tale. It employs accessible vocabulary in a child’s voice, and the message feels more like receiving advice from a friend than being scolded. In semirealistic cartoon illustrations, Izmaylova depicts Kemal and her family, who are Black, with a keen eye for details of their Ethiopian Muslim heritage; both the mom and the older version of Elham are shown wearing hijabs.
A story with a clear message and smart coverage of a timely topic.Pub Date: Feb. 5, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-73777-592-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: April 9, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Charming, funny and true to life.
With words, pictures and pictures with words, 6-year-old Dory, called Rascal, recounts how she finally gets her older brother and sister to play with her.
Rascal’s siblings complain that she’s always pestering them. She acts like a baby, she asks weird questions, and she chatters endlessly with her imaginary monster friend. So they tell her a kidnapping witch, Mrs. Gobble Gracker, is looking for her. In her efforts to avoid capture, Rascal becomes a dog. As a “dog,” she’s invisible to the little-girl–stealer but appealing to her older brother, who, it turns out, always wanted to have a dog. She maintains her dogginess all the way through a doctor’s checkup until a surprise vaccination spurs her to speech and retaliation. Rascal and her invented fairy godmother, Mr. Nuggy (he doesn’t look much like a fairy godmother), use the ensuing timeout to concoct poison soup for the witch. Eventually, the witch is vanquished and order more or less restored. Redeemed in the eyes of her siblings because she’s brave enough to retrieve a bouncy ball from the toilet as well as wildly imaginative, Rascal finally gets her wish. Often just on the edge of out of control, this inventive child is irresistible and her voice, convincing. Childlike drawings, often embellished with hand-lettered narrative or speech bubbles, of round-headed humans, Sendak-ian monsters and a snaggle-toothed witch add to the humor.
Charming, funny and true to life. (Fiction. 6-9)Pub Date: Oct. 9, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-8037-4088-4
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 5, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The lovable Díaz family has yet to disappoint.
Fourth grade is not for the faint of heart.
In Book 3 of the Stella Díaz series, Dominguez’s Ramona Quimby–esque heroine of Salvadoran and Mexican descent finds herself a tad overextended as she joins an art club, attempts to fulfill her presidential duties at the helm of the ocean-saving Sea Musketeers, and takes swim lessons with best friend Jenny. As if that weren’t enough, her mom is spending a suspicious amount of time with new neighbor Diego, and Stella is not sure how she feels about her mom having a maybe-boyfriend. Stella’s worry and exhaustion are palpable, but her enthusiasm for all of her hobbies is endearingly earnest. Middle-grade readers will get a taste of what’s to come when Stella and her older brother, Nick, compare extracurriculars as he begins to imagine applying to college. As with previous volumes, occasional Spanish words are presented in italics (a decision explained in the author’s note); they are typically accompanied by context clues or in-text translations, narrator Stella confiding to readers that she needs to work on her Spanish. Her overall vocabulary is robust, however, and she easily weaves in words such as guffaw, devious, and deduction that bolster her go-getter characterization. The Chicago setting and its vigorous Latinx community are well realized. The novel can easily be enjoyed without familiarity with previous books, and Dominguez’s black-and-white illustrations give transitioning readers’ eyes places to rest.
The lovable Díaz family has yet to disappoint. (Fiction. 7-10)Pub Date: Jan. 12, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-250-76308-2
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: Nov. 17, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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