Starred Review for Kirkus Reviews

The fifth installment in the Swedish early chapter series featuring Dani, a young white girl. Dani is starting second grade, and although she still misses her "best friend in the whole world," Ella (who has moved), she is overjoyed that her father, Gianni, has returned home after a summer of hospitalization following an accident. She is also looking forward to the class trip to Skansen Zoo. But at Skansen, two of Dani's classmates tell her she looks like the monkeys, and Dani runs off. Lo and behold, she runs into Ella, whose unruly class is also visiting. The two sneak off to play, and Dani realizes that Ella is unhappy in her new class, which makes Dani unhappy. Lagercrantz expertly and respectfully weaves themes of moving on, resilience, and friendship; Eriksson's black-and-white illustrations give heart and warmth. (In the illustrations, everyone's skin is the white of the paper, but racial differences are hinted at in facial features and hair.) The beauty and magic of these books is that, while they are full of sweetness, they embrace reality. Dani is not ready to let Sadie, the nurse her father fell in love with over the summer, into her life and acts out. And Dani's maternal grandmother (Dani's mother died five years earlier) sides with Dani, a sophisticated insertion that is in line with Dani's (and presumably, readers') growing maturity. A story about making life whole—that's also really funny. (Fiction. 5-8)

ALA Booklist (Thu Feb 01 00:00:00 CST 2001)

Separated from the rest of her class during a field trip to a Stockholm zoo, Dani is thrilled to find her beloved friend Ella, whose distant school is also visiting the zoo. After spending a mostly happy time together, both return to their own schools. At home that evening, dinner is an uncomfortable occasion. Dani hasn't had time to process having her father home from the hospital before he asks Sadie, his nurse and girlfriend, to join them. With the support of extended family and friends, Dani works through a series of concerns about her father and her best friend before finding her balance again. Providing a synopsis of this book doesn't convey the pleasure of reading it or viewing its lively, expressive ink drawings. Each action, comment, facial expression, character flaw, or emotion is simple on its own, but it becomes part of an emotionally nuanced, richly interconnected narrative. Best appreciated by readers of the previous four Dani books, this one delivers the warmth and human interest that characterize the series.

Kirkus Reviews (Fri Oct 04 00:00:00 CDT 2024)

The fifth installment in the Swedish early chapter series featuring Dani, a young white girl. Dani is starting second grade, and although she still misses her "best friend in the whole world," Ella (who has moved), she is overjoyed that her father, Gianni, has returned home after a summer of hospitalization following an accident. She is also looking forward to the class trip to Skansen Zoo. But at Skansen, two of Dani's classmates tell her she looks like the monkeys, and Dani runs off. Lo and behold, she runs into Ella, whose unruly class is also visiting. The two sneak off to play, and Dani realizes that Ella is unhappy in her new class, which makes Dani unhappy. Lagercrantz expertly and respectfully weaves themes of moving on, resilience, and friendship; Eriksson's black-and-white illustrations give heart and warmth. (In the illustrations, everyone's skin is the white of the paper, but racial differences are hinted at in facial features and hair.) The beauty and magic of these books is that, while they are full of sweetness, they embrace reality. Dani is not ready to let Sadie, the nurse her father fell in love with over the summer, into her life and acts out. And Dani's maternal grandmother (Dani's mother died five years earlier) sides with Dani, a sophisticated insertion that is in line with Dani's (and presumably, readers') growing maturity. A story about making life whole—that's also really funny. (Fiction. 5-8)