Excels at being educational without sacrificing charm, humor, or excitement.
When the schools are gender-segregated after fifth grade, which one is a nonbinary kid supposed to choose?
Jamie Rambeau’s a pretty happy kid, growing up in Nottingham, England. It’s not until it comes time to enroll in middle school that they realize they’ll have to pick either the boys’ school or the girls’ school to attend. Almost everyone Jamie previously thought was an ally suddenly seems suspect. Even their affirming, supportive parents want them to “just PICK ONE… Stop attention-seeking.” If that’s how it’s going to be, Jamie decides, they’re just going to have to “speak up”—and they do. All the adults are quite willing to be supportive of a trans student, as long as they can fit that student’s gender into one of two tidy slots. So Jamie begins an activism campaign, which eventually leads to a news helicopter, a police interrogation, and (most importantly) qualified success. Olly, Jamie’s exuberantly gay older brother who enjoys wearing makeup and dresses, is an affectionate, funny delight. Their best friends, Daisy Adewumi and Ash Choudhary, whose own problems Jamie ultimately learns to acknowledge and respect even if they at first see them as not being “real problems,” are supportive and clever. Between chapters, Jamie provides clear, accessible definitions of concepts and terms related to the book’s central themes. Jamie is cued white; there’s ethnic diversity in the supporting cast.
Excels at being educational without sacrificing charm, humor, or excitement. (resources) (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: May 28, 2024
ISBN: 9781499816815
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Yellow Jacket
Review Posted Online: March 9, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often...
A successful juvenile by the beloved New Yorker writer portrays a farm episode with an imaginative twist that makes a poignant, humorous story of a pig, a spider and a little girl.
Young Fern Arable pleads for the life of runt piglet Wilbur and gets her father to sell him to a neighbor, Mr. Zuckerman. Daily, Fern visits the Zuckermans to sit and muse with Wilbur and with the clever pen spider Charlotte, who befriends him when he is lonely and downcast. At the news of Wilbur's forthcoming slaughter, campaigning Charlotte, to the astonishment of people for miles around, spins words in her web. "Some Pig" comes first. Then "Terrific"—then "Radiant". The last word, when Wilbur is about to win a show prize and Charlotte is about to die from building her egg sac, is "Humble". And as the wonderful Charlotte does die, the sadness is tempered by the promise of more spiders next spring.
The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often informative as amusing, and the whole tenor of appealing wit and pathos will make fine entertainment for reading aloud, too.Pub Date: Oct. 15, 1952
ISBN: 978-0-06-026385-0
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1952
PERSPECTIVES
SEEN & HEARD
Certain to steal hearts.
In this follow-up to 2020’s The One and Only Bob, Ruby the elephant is still living at Wildworld Zoological Park and Sanctuary.
She’s apprehensive about her Tuskday, a rite of passage for young elephants when she’ll give a speech in front of the rest of the herd. Luckily, she can confide in her Uncle Ivan, who is next door in Gorilla World, and Uncle Bob, the dog who lives nearby with human friend Julia. Ruby was born in an unspecified part of Africa, later ending up on display in the mall, where she met Ivan, Bob, and Julia. The unexpected arrival of someone from Ruby’s past life on the savanna revives memories both warmly nostalgic and deeply traumatic. An elephant glossary and Castelao’s charming, illustrated guide to elephant body language help immerse readers in Ruby’s world. Goofy, playful, and mischievous Ruby is fully dimensional, as she has shown her bravery during the many hardships of her young life. Applegate deftly tempers themes of grief and loss with compassion and humor as Ruby finds her place in the herd. The author’s note touches on climate change, the illegal ivory trade, and conservation efforts, but the highly emotive framing of the story through the memories of a bewildered baby elephant emphasizes the impact of lines such as “ ‘in Africa,’ I say softly, ‘there were bad people,’ ” without offering readers a nuanced understanding of the broader context that drives poaching.
Certain to steal hearts. (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: May 2, 2023
ISBN: 9780063080089
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: March 13, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2023
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