A book about a troubled child that offers understanding and positivity.
A young girl struggles with depression in Grant’s illustrated middle-grade novel.
Jane Smith, age 9-and-three-quarters, describes herself as “gloomy (unfortunately).” She says that her research shows that 17% of people in the United States are depressed “like me.” She gives herself the first name Thistle, because it’s purple and prickly, and the last name Fabuloso, because it gives her “something to strive for.” One day, she puts on her old, too-small, green-and-yellow-plaid coat, thinks about what’s “wrong” with her life, and falls asleep. In an interlude titled “Thistle’s Dream,” she experiences an earthquake; the narrative switches from first- to third-person, and artist Shelly’s illustrations also change. Previously, the imagery was only black, white, and purple, with the exception of the plaid coat; the dream world is multicolored and has a wild, jagged style. Thistle’s coat now fits perfectly, and she sees “the bright side of things.” She reads her parents a list of rules to follow and does the same with her classmates; her rule for herself involves forgiveness. Thistle also visits her sightless adult neighbor, Bill, who says that his favorite word is resilience: “when things get gloomy…you can bounce back.” When Thistle wakes up, she uses the name Jane again, hugs her mom, and tries to socialize more. Later, when she tries to “bounce back,” she finds she can do so 20% to 40% of the time. Overall, Grant’s book presents readers a fun and effective balance of text and illustration. The author uses humor effectively, as in an awkward meeting with a distraught guidance counselor (“Wow. I was kind of looking forward to being in my 20’s. Now I’m not so sure”). Sometimes, though, the book goes on unnecessary tangents, as when it provides the lifecycle of a mayfly. Still, Grant paints a full, detailed portrait of Jane, showing that her depression is just one element of her life: The youngster is also curious, independent, and fond of words. However, real-life resources regarding childhood depression would have been a helpful addition.
A book about a troubled child that offers understanding and positivity.Pub Date: April 9, 2025
ISBN: 9798992931624
Page Count: 116
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: July 23, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs.
The Heffley family’s house undergoes a disastrous attempt at home improvement.
When Great Aunt Reba dies, she leaves some money to the family. Greg’s mom calls a family meeting to determine what to do with their share, proposing home improvements and then overruling the family’s cartoonish wish lists and instead pushing for an addition to the kitchen. Before bringing in the construction crew, the Heffleys attempt to do minor maintenance and repairs themselves—during which Greg fails at the work in various slapstick scenes. Once the professionals are brought in, the problems keep getting worse: angry neighbors, terrifying problems in walls, and—most serious—civil permitting issues that put the kibosh on what work’s been done. Left with only enough inheritance to patch and repair the exterior of the house—and with the school’s dismal standardized test scores as a final straw—Greg’s mom steers the family toward moving, opening up house-hunting and house-selling storylines (and devastating loyal Rowley, who doesn’t want to lose his best friend). While Greg’s positive about the move, he’s not completely uncaring about Rowley’s action. (And of course, Greg himself is not as unaffected as he wishes.) The gags include effectively placed callbacks to seemingly incidental events (the “stress lizard” brought in on testing day is particularly funny) and a lampoon of after-school-special–style problem books. Just when it seems that the Heffleys really will move, a new sequence of chaotic trouble and property destruction heralds a return to the status quo. Whew.
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs. (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 8-12)Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3903-3
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Nov. 18, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
An entertaining take on family values, Wimpy Kid style.
A summer vacation turns out to be anything but relaxing for Greg and a teeming horde of Heffleys.
Gramma declines the offer of a grand birthday celebration, saying that “what would make her REALLY happy is if everyone else went to Ruttyneck Island”—though she prepares individual packs of her legendary meatballs. (“You knew exactly how much Gramma likes you by how many meatballs you got.”) A gaggle of Heffley relatives and a dog stuff themselves into a small beach house, where overcrowding, personality conflicts, and simmering resentments become just some of the ingredients in a rolling boil of sitcom-style catastrophes, not to mention questionable decisions ranging from leaving the kids to make dinner unsupervised to labeling a cooler “HUMAN ORGANS” to keep random passersby from helping themselves. As usual, Greg supplies the setups in poker-faced journal entries interspersed with black-and-white drawings of slouched figures bearing frowny expressions of dismay or annoyance to cue the laffs. Gramma, it eventually turns out, not only (unsurprisingly) has plans of her own, but is also keeping a shocking secret about those meatballs. To go with the knee-slapping set pieces, Kinney slips in a tasty bit of family lore about how Greg’s parents met, plus droll takes on such low-hanging comedy fruit as restaurant manners, viciously competitive board games, and social media influencers (Greg being one, albeit with zero followers, and his Aunt Veronica’s little dog being another, with 3.8 million).
An entertaining take on family values, Wimpy Kid style. (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 8-12)Pub Date: Oct. 22, 2024
ISBN: 9781419766954
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Oct. 22, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2024
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