Doherty (Snake Stone, 1996, etc.) works a generous handful of selkie legends into this somber tale, set on an isolated northern island where ``men haunt the sea . . . and it is said that the people of the sea haunt the land.'' Caught in a freak storm, a childless fisherman finds a baby floating next to his boat, and brings it home to his wife, Jannet. They name her Gioga and raise her as their own, despite the warnings of a peculiar, seemingly deranged villager, Eilean. Gioga's real father, calling himself Hill Marliner, appears twice to take her back; twice he relents at Jannet's pleading; when Hill Marliner returns a third time, Jannet shoots him. Dead, he becomes a great seal. Wailing with grief, a wave of seals attacks the village's boats and catch, and a wild storm comes up. Sacrificing herself to quiet the storm, Eilean sends Jannet's husband to bring Gioga back, and tells a young villager the location of the sealskin that will allow the child to go back to her people. This is without the emotional impact of Donna Jo Napoli's Zel (1996), another story of a woman loving a child beyond sanity, but those captivated by other selkie tales will find a full measure of magic and mystery here. (b&w illustrations, not seen) (Fiction. 11-13)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1997
ISBN: 0-7894-2469-X
Page Count: 115
Publisher: DK Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1997
Marguerite Henry died barely two years ago, after living the life of which most writers dream: She wrote from the time she was young, her parents encouraged her, she published early and often, and her books were honored and loved in her lifetime. Her hobby, she said, was words, but it was also her life and livelihood. Her research skills were honed by working in her local library, doing book repair. Her husband Sidney supported and encouraged her work, and they traveled widely as she carefully researched the horses on Chincoteague and the burros in the Grand Canyon. She worked in great harmony with her usual illustrator, Wesley Dennis, and was writing up until she died. Collins is a bit overwrought in his prose, but Henry comes across as strong and engaging as she must have been in person. Researchers will be delighted to find her Newbery acceptance speech included in its entirety. (b&w photos, bibliography, index) (Biography. 9-12)
Pub Date: March 10, 1999
ISBN: 1-883846-39-0
Page Count: 112
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1999
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A stolen rabbit connects three neglected children and a pair of young sleuths in this busy, overpopulated story from Conly (Crazy Lady, 1993, etc.). Bad-news cousin Wayne leads Earl Foster, 11, and his learning-disabled brother, Frankie, into an affluent neighborhood on another bike-stealing expedition; Frankie carries away a pet rabbit, instead sneaking it into the house where he and his siblings live with Aunt Lula until their father, laid-off, can get back on his feet. Addie, the rabbit’s devastated owner, gets little help from police, but finds an unexpected ally in her neighbor, Maynard, a lonely adopted classmate born in India. While the two are gathering clues, Aunt Lula vanishes, leaving Earl to care for his two siblings as best he can. Conly develops her story at a deliberate pace, splitting the point-of-view among no fewer than five characters. Angela, a bedwetter with a broken yardstick for a magic wand and an unfettered imagination, makes the rest of the cast seem generic; a pivotal scene is farfetched at best, and a wonderfully tidy resolution that finds Addie with her rabbit, the Fosters with their father, and Wayne in jail is equally contrived. The book is readable, but the capable Conly uses artifice to bring the plotlines together, and the Fosters are not as memorable as the abandoned children in Cynthia Voigt’s Homecoming (1981) or Jackie Koller’s A Place to Call Home (1995) (Fiction. 11-13)
Pub Date: May 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-8050-3934-1
Page Count: 233
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 1998
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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