Wednesday Wilson gets down to business

Gr 2--4--Third grader Wednesday Wilson is a budding entrepreneur looking for the perfect business idea--and trying to avoid her archnemesis Ruby and her friends, the Emmas. Unfortunately, an encounter with the Emmas at school forces Wednesday to invent a new product on the spot. However, with some help from her best friend, Charlie, and her little brother Mister, this might just be the opportunity Wednesday needs to get a new business off the ground. Wednesday self-identifies as mixed race and has two moms ("a mom and a mum, to be precise"), Charlie presents as white, and their classmates and other secondary characters are illustrated in a variety of skin tones. Grayscale images accompany the text on almost every spread and are rendered digitally in a wide-eyed cartoon style. Business vocabulary like elevator pitch and overhead are sprinkled throughout the story and explained in footnotes. VERDICT Wednesday is funny and charming and sure to win over readers, especially fans of Ramona Quimby, Marty McGuire, and Clementine. A promising start to a new early chapter book series.--Lauren Strohecker, McKinley Elem. Sch., Elkins Park, PA

All Wednesday August Wilson needs is one good, moneymaking idea. Problem is that even with two self-employed moms providing advice and an allowance, Wednesday can't seem to make progress. But if necessity is the mother of invention, desperation is the mother of half-baked, just-might-work business plans, and after an unfortunate incident puts Wednesday in the crosshairs of her classroom's queen bee, the only way to save herself is to launch a Secret Keeper business overnight. Miraculously, an amazing team and the small sacrifice of a few problematic library books see the plan fall into place, and everyone loves the product--except the teacher. Turns out destruction of library property and breaking school rules aren't the most sound business decisions, but with apologies, restitution, and volunteering on a new committee to choose materials without stereotypes, Wednesday is free to pursue her next big business idea. Galbraith packs a lot of energy into a relatively small package. Frank background and vocabulary details provide rich depth to Wednesday's world, and Wednesday herself is a detail-oriented, enthusiastically scattered narrator. Despite teeing up expectations with a multiracial cast, plotlines about stereotypes, and a note about writing across racialized identities, the narrative delivers a color-blind story rather than exploring how Wednesday's mixed-race identity informs the way she navigates her world. Wednesday's moms are an interracial couple, one Black and the other White. A series opener for young fans of Shark Tank and anyone who enjoys bringing ideas to life. (Fiction. 7-9) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.