A resonating, inspiring story that encourages creative resilience and strength.
After a shattering racist incident, a Hmong American girl defines her own sense of home.
A vicious message scrawled on the mailbox, “ASIANS GO HOME,” understandably upends Nou’s sense of safety. She watches her mother’s failed attempts to wash off the angry words; her father then covers the letters with white paint. Nou longs to go to “a place where people want us,” but Dad quietly reminds her that “America is your home.” Their people, the Hmong, “have no country,” Nou knows. Dad finds home in his songs, Mom in her garden, big sister Houa in her Fourth of July soccer tournament and in Hmong New Year, and Pog Pog (Grandmother) in the traditional story cloths she sews. Microaggressions at school further alienate Nou: “The words people say weigh me down,” particularly the “Eeewww. Gross” reaction to the delicious zaub nyoj she brings in for lunch. Her own search for home takes shape on the page, “a place where I am accepted.” In filling her notebooks, “little by little, I create a place where I belong.” Yang and Kim have reunited after collaborating on A Map Into the World (2019), the book visible on Nou and Houa’s nightstand. Kim’s zoomed-above perspectives for numerous spreads are clever reminders to take a wider view beyond difficulties. Her artful adaptations of the “fantastical things” Nou depicts in her notebook release wondrous swirls of healing energy. Nou’s community is diverse.
A resonating, inspiring story that encourages creative resilience and strength. (author’s and illustrator’s notes, glossary with pronunciation guidance) (Picture book. 5-10)Pub Date: Feb. 3, 2026
ISBN: 9798765619858
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Carolrhoda
Review Posted Online: Oct. 10, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
This outing lacks the sophistication of such category standards as Clementine; here’s hoping English amps things up for...
A gentle voice and familiar pitfalls characterize this tale of a boy navigating the risky road to responsibility.
Gavin is new to his neighborhood and Carver Elementary. He likes his new friend, Richard, and has a typically contentious relationship with his older sister, Danielle. When Gavin’s desire to impress Richard sets off a disastrous chain of events, the boy struggles to evade responsibility for his actions. “After all, it isn’t his fault that Danielle’s snow globe got broken. Sure, he shouldn’t have been in her room—but then, she shouldn’t be keeping candy in her room to tempt him. Anybody would be tempted. Anybody!” opines Gavin once he learns the punishment for his crime. While Gavin has a charming Everyboy quality, and his aversion to Aunt Myrtle’s yapping little dog rings true, little about Gavin distinguishes him from other trouble-prone protagonists. He is, regrettably, forgettable. Coretta Scott King Honor winner English (Francie, 1999) is a teacher whose storytelling usually benefits from her day job. Unfortunately, the pizzazz of classroom chaos is largely absent from this series opener.
This outing lacks the sophistication of such category standards as Clementine; here’s hoping English amps things up for subsequent volumes. (Fiction. 6-9)Pub Date: Dec. 17, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-547-97044-8
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 1, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
It’s hard to argue with success, but guides that actually do the math will be more useful to budding capitalists.
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
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