An absolutely wonderful debut with the potential to become a YA classic.
In a modern take on both Kafka and T.H. White, a young girl learns about life as a human by spending time in her pet ferret’s world.
At 14, Fiona Forrest has already had her share of life’s disappointments. Her living situation is comfortable enough; her 3-year-old brother Rickie is largely bearable and her father, though emotionally bottled, is a fairly successful house builder in the Ontario area. But at the start of Haskin’s confident, hugely engaging young adult novel, Fiona’s mother is “a painful and hurtful non-event,” having left home and stayed incommunicado. Fiona’s father resignedly says Mom is going through a personal crisis and needs time away, but the whole thing is so raw and confusing to Fiona that there are many times when she wishes she could join her alert, intelligent ferret Bandit in the comparative peace and stability of his cage. However, when the story obliges and Fiona suddenly finds herself ferret-sized and able to talk with Bandit, things turn out to be not so idyllic. Bandit—a positively hilarious creation, by turns timorous and pompous with lessons about “the way of the ferret,” a kind of furry Falstaff—is indulgent but unimaginative (although one of his strongest maxims, “Ferrets never surrender,” is something Fiona takes to heart) and the two of them have a whole book’s worth of adventures together, from perilous encounters with a great horned owl and a rat to an enlightening chance meeting with a skunk (“We are sorely misunderstood,” he says). Along the way, Fiona and Bandit become closer friends than either ever expected and Fiona rethinks all of the problems in her much missed human life. Haskin’s book is full of fine writing, fun dialogue (Fiona has a way with deadpan quips) and a multilayered, believable and thoroughly heartwarming ending.
An absolutely wonderful debut with the potential to become a YA classic.Pub Date: July 26, 2011
ISBN: 978-0986919909
Page Count: 180
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: July 20, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2011
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Broccoli: No way is James going to eat broccoli. “It’s disgusting,” says James. Well then, James, says his father, let’s consider the alternatives: some wormy dirt, perhaps, some stinky socks, some pre-chewed gum? James reconsiders the broccoli, but—milk? “Blech,” says James. Right, says his father, who needs strong bones? You’ll be great at hide-and-seek, though not so great at baseball and kickball and even tickling the dog’s belly. James takes a mouthful. So it goes through lumpy oatmeal, mushroom lasagna and slimy eggs, with James’ father parrying his son’s every picky thrust. And it is fun, because the father’s retorts are so outlandish: the lasagna-making troll in the basement who will be sent back to the rat circus, there to endure the rodent’s vicious bites; the uneaten oatmeal that will grow and grow and probably devour the dog that the boy won’t be able to tickle any longer since his bones are so rubbery. Schneider’s watercolors catch the mood of gentle ribbing, the looks of bewilderment and surrender and the deadpanned malarkey. It all makes James’ father’s last urging—“I was just going to say that you might like them if you tried them”—wholly fresh and unexpected advice. (Early reader. 5-9)
Pub Date: May 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-547-14956-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Although the love comes shining through, the text often confuses in straining for patterned simplicity.
A collection of parental wishes for a child.
It starts out simply enough: two children run pell-mell across an open field, one holding a high-flying kite with the line “I wish you more ups than downs.” But on subsequent pages, some of the analogous concepts are confusing or ambiguous. The line “I wish you more tippy-toes than deep” accompanies a picture of a boy happily swimming in a pool. His feet are visible, but it's not clear whether he's floating in the deep end or standing in the shallow. Then there's a picture of a boy on a beach, his pockets bulging with driftwood and colorful shells, looking frustrated that his pockets won't hold the rest of his beachcombing treasures, which lie tantalizingly before him on the sand. The line reads: “I wish you more treasures than pockets.” Most children will feel the better wish would be that he had just the right amount of pockets for his treasures. Some of the wordplay, such as “more can than knot” and “more pause than fast-forward,” will tickle older readers with their accompanying, comical illustrations. The beautifully simple pictures are a sweet, kid- and parent-appealing blend of comic-strip style and fine art; the cast of children depicted is commendably multiethnic.
Although the love comes shining through, the text often confuses in straining for patterned simplicity. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: April 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4521-2699-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2015
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