bookshelf

AMBER BROWN IS ON THE MOVE

Name: AMBER BROWN IS ON THE MOVE
Author: Paula Danziger
ISBN: 978-0-399-16169-8

by Paula Danziger ; Bruce Coville ; Elizabeth Levy ; illustrated by Anthony Lewis ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 12, 2013

bookshelf

Amber Brown is facing two tough challenges: her recently blended family is in the midst of moving to a new home, and she can’t seem to focus on pending high-pressure standardized tests at school.

Even though her mom is now remarried, Amber doesn’t want to leave the home she and her parents shared. She has always been a person who lets her imagination wander, exploring new tracks; it’s a charming and positive characteristic, but it stands in the way of solving complicated word problems on state-mandated tests. Of course, the coming move and her inability to focus are related. She now has to attend Saturday Academy to prepare for those scary tests. That’s time she usually gets to spend with her dad, but he’s just started dating the new dance teacher at her school, Miss Isobel, yet another complication—and distraction—for Amber. “Miss Isobel is just a little too sparkly for comfort. She makes me want to turn off a light somewhere,” Amber thinks. As in previous outings, Amber aptly, capably and satisfyingly explores issues common to kids her age. The challenges she faces are just hard enough to sustain interest, while permitting an anxiety-relieving resolution for her audience. Even though filtered through numerous works and new authors, Amber’s voice remains fresh, funny and achingly honest—traits readers love about her. (Fiction. 7-11)

Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2013

ISBN: 978-0-399-16169-8

Page Count: 176

Publisher: Putnam

Review Posted Online: July 16, 2013

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2013

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S FAMILY

- BOOK REVIEW
AMBER BROWN IS NOT A CRAYON
by Paula Danziger ; adapted by Victoria Ying ; illustrated by Victoria Ying ; color by Lynette Wong

- BOOK REVIEW
BARFBURGER BABY, I WAS HERE FIRST
by Paula Danziger & illustrated by G. Brian Karas

- BOOK REVIEW
IT’S A FAIR DAY, AMBER BROWN
by Paula Danziger & illustrated by Tony Ross

bookshelf

LITTLE DAYMOND LEARNS TO EARN

by Daymond John ; illustrated by Nicole Miles ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 21, 2023

It’s hard to argue with success, but guides that actually do the math will be more useful to budding capitalists.

bookshelf

How to raise money for a coveted poster: put your friends to work!

John, founder of the FUBU fashion line and a Shark Tank venture capitalist, offers a self-referential blueprint for financial success. Having only half of the $10 he needs for a Minka J poster, Daymond forks over $1 to buy a plain T-shirt, paints a picture of the pop star on it, sells it for $5, and uses all of his cash to buy nine more shirts. Then he recruits three friends to decorate them with his design and help sell them for an unspecified amount (from a conveniently free and empty street-fair booth) until they’re gone. The enterprising entrepreneur reimburses himself for the shirts and splits the remaining proceeds, which leaves him with enough for that poster as well as a “brand-new business book,” while his friends express other fiscal strategies: saving their share, spending it all on new art supplies, or donating part and buying a (math) book with the rest. (In a closing summation, the author also suggests investing in stocks, bonds, or cryptocurrency.) Though Miles cranks up the visual energy in her sparsely detailed illustrations by incorporating bright colors and lots of greenbacks, the actual advice feels a bit vague. Daymond is Black; most of the cast are people of color. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

It’s hard to argue with success, but guides that actually do the math will be more useful to budding capitalists. (Picture book. 7-9)

Pub Date: March 21, 2023

ISBN: 978-0-593-56727-2

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Random House

Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2022

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2023

Categories:

CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

bookshelf

TUCK EVERLASTING

by Natalie Babbitt ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 1, 1975

However the compelling fitness of theme and event and the apt but unexpected imagery (the opening sentences compare the...

bookshelf

At a time when death has become an acceptable, even voguish subject in children's fiction, Natalie Babbitt comes through with a stylistic gem about living forever.

Protected Winnie, the ten-year-old heroine, is not immortal, but when she comes upon young Jesse Tuck drinking from a secret spring in her parents' woods, she finds herself involved with a family who, having innocently drunk the same water some 87 years earlier, haven't aged a moment since. Though the mood is delicate, there is no lack of action, with the Tucks (previously suspected of witchcraft) now pursued for kidnapping Winnie; Mae Tuck, the middle aged mother, striking and killing a stranger who is onto their secret and would sell the water; and Winnie taking Mae's place in prison so that the Tucks can get away before she is hanged from the neck until....? Though Babbitt makes the family a sad one, most of their reasons for discontent are circumstantial and there isn't a great deal of wisdom to be gleaned from their fate or Winnie's decision not to share it.

However the compelling fitness of theme and event and the apt but unexpected imagery (the opening sentences compare the first week in August when this takes place to "the highest seat of a Ferris wheel when it pauses in its turning") help to justify the extravagant early assertion that had the secret about to be revealed been known at the time of the action, the very earth "would have trembled on its axis like a beetle on a pin." (Fantasy. 9-11)