FICTION

Just a Kid

by Rie CHARLES
Red Deer. Mar. 2020. 96p. pap. $12.95. ISBN 9780889955820.
COPY ISBN
Gr 2-5–Meerin Hoy is a nine-year-old schoolgirl living in a rural town that’s hoping to grow. When she awakens one morning to see a “For Sale” sign on the empty lot in her neighborhood and learns of the plans to build a housing development there, she is devastated. Carson’s Field isn’t an unused, empty lot; it’s a place where she and her friends and neighbors go to play, think, and study nature. So Meerin decides to take action: She writes and collects signatures on a petition, sends a letter to the editor, and attends town meetings where the future of the lot is discussed. Her hard work is rewarded when the town decides to build elsewhere and designates Carson’s Field a park named in her honor.
VERDICT This is an intentionally simplified tale of land preservation and empowerment. An additional purchase for elementary libraries where there’s a call for books about activism.
Reviewed by Lynn Van Auken, Oak Bluffs School, MA , Mar 27, 2020

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