A cautionary tale the whole family will find amusing and enlightening
Jack Strong is an ordinary kid with an extraordinary schedule who finally chooses to become a couch potato to make his point.
Cello, soccer, tennis, EMT training, Chinese: Jack’s parents, especially his dad, expect him to be a well-rounded person when it becomes time to apply for college, and to this end, they are filling his days with an overload of extracurricular activities. But what Jack really wants is more time on his couch, where he can spend some quality time daydreaming. One afternoon, Jack can’t take it anymore and goes on strike; he refuses to get off the couch until his parents agree to let him quit the activities he doesn’t like to do. Publicity and hilarity ensue, which Jack finds a nice change, but soon he realizes there are greater things worth standing up for, like the very family he’s angry at. Greenwald, author of the Charlie Joe Jackson series, writes with a relaxed tone that young readers will identify with, and he touches on subjects that kids and parents alike will find relevant, capturing the conundrum of overscheduling with poignancy and humor. While a few plot points are a little far-fetched, overall the book offers a winning combination of ethics and slapstick. Drawings by Mendes are simple but effective.
A cautionary tale the whole family will find amusing and enlightening . (Fiction. 8-11)Pub Date: Sept. 24, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-59643-836-1
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: June 25, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
However the compelling fitness of theme and event and the apt but unexpected imagery (the opening sentences compare the...
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.
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1975
ISBN: 0312369816
Page Count: 164
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: April 13, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1975
SEEN & HEARD
Certain to elicit both gales of giggles and winces of sympathy (not to mention recognition) from young readers.
First volume of a planned three, this edited version of an ongoing online serial records a middle-school everykid’s triumphs and (more often) tribulations through the course of a school year.
Largely through his own fault, mishaps seem to plague Greg at every turn, from the minor freak-outs of finding himself permanently seated in class between two pierced stoners and then being saddled with his mom for a substitute teacher, to being forced to wrestle in gym with a weird classmate who has invited him to view his “secret freckle.” Presented in a mix of legible “hand-lettered” text and lots of simple cartoon illustrations with the punch lines often in dialogue balloons, Greg’s escapades, unwavering self-interest and sardonic commentary are a hoot and a half.
Certain to elicit both gales of giggles and winces of sympathy (not to mention recognition) from young readers. (Fiction. 9-11)Pub Date: April 1, 2007
ISBN: 0-8109-9313-9
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2007
SEEN & HEARD
PERSPECTIVES
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