A thrilling, thoughtful, and layered adventure story with fantastical elements.
A spirited 12-year-old embarks on an action-packed globe-trekking adventure to collect and repatriate stolen artifacts.
After Cincinnati Lee, an American girl who has some Chinese heritage, snags her ailing 135-year-old archaeologist great-great-great-grandfather’s diary, she learns about a clay idol from Peru that he looted (and which has cursed the family) and the legendary Spear of Destiny (a relic rumored to grant immense power, but at great peril). Determined to right past wrongs, Cincinnati works to recover the idol. In doing so she unravels an international web of secrets involving corporate art smugglers, curse-bearing relics, and her own family history. Along the way, Cincinnati is supported by friends: Parsley, a Black classmate at her posh private school and the daughter of a celebrity musician, and Felix, who presents Latine and is an amateur forger whose father works with Cin’s mom at the Cosmopolitan Museum of New York. The settings and characters are well developed, and laugh-out-loud dialogue accompanies the bold, fast-paced narrative. References to other adventure stories, real places, and true-to-life political controversies (such as the Hobby Lobby smuggling scandal) abound, adding depth and inviting readers to reflect on questions of cultural heritage and museum ethics. As Heilig writes in her author’s note, “When the treasure we put on display is evidence of a crime, what will future generations believe about our values?” This story is hilarious, smart, and respectfully rendered, and the writing is accessible while still feeling literary.
A thrilling, thoughtful, and layered adventure story with fantastical elements. (Adventure. 8-12)Pub Date: March 25, 2025
ISBN: 9780063348363
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 28, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2025
Hugely entertaining, timely, and triumphant.
Robot Roz undertakes an unusual ocean journey to save her adopted island home in this third series entry.
When a poison tide flowing across the ocean threatens their island, Roz works with the resident creatures to ensure that they will have clean water, but the destruction of vegetation and crowding of habitats jeopardize everyone’s survival. Brown’s tale of environmental depredation and turmoil is by turns poignant, graceful, endearing, and inspiring, with his (mostly) gentle robot protagonist at its heart. Though Roz is different from the creatures she lives with or encounters—including her son, Brightbill the goose, and his new mate, Glimmerwing—she makes connections through her versatile communication abilities and her desire to understand and help others. When Roz accidentally discovers that the replacement body given to her by Dr. Molovo is waterproof, she sets out to seek help and discovers the human-engineered source of the toxic tide. Brown’s rich descriptions of undersea landscapes, entertaining conversations between Roz and wild creatures, and concise yet powerful explanations of the effect of the poison tide on the ecology of the island are superb. Simple, spare illustrations offer just enough glimpses of Roz and her surroundings to spark the imagination. The climactic confrontation pits oceangoing mammals, seabirds, fish, and even zooplankton against hardware and technology in a nicely choreographed battle. But it is Roz’s heroism and peacemaking that save the day.
Hugely entertaining, timely, and triumphant. (author’s note) (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2023
ISBN: 9780316669412
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2023
The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often...
A successful juvenile by the beloved New Yorker writer portrays a farm episode with an imaginative twist that makes a poignant, humorous story of a pig, a spider and a little girl.
Young Fern Arable pleads for the life of runt piglet Wilbur and gets her father to sell him to a neighbor, Mr. Zuckerman. Daily, Fern visits the Zuckermans to sit and muse with Wilbur and with the clever pen spider Charlotte, who befriends him when he is lonely and downcast. At the news of Wilbur's forthcoming slaughter, campaigning Charlotte, to the astonishment of people for miles around, spins words in her web. "Some Pig" comes first. Then "Terrific"—then "Radiant". The last word, when Wilbur is about to win a show prize and Charlotte is about to die from building her egg sac, is "Humble". And as the wonderful Charlotte does die, the sadness is tempered by the promise of more spiders next spring.
The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often informative as amusing, and the whole tenor of appealing wit and pathos will make fine entertainment for reading aloud, too.Pub Date: Oct. 15, 1952
ISBN: 978-0-06-026385-0
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1952
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