A timely middle-grade fantasy grounded in themes of friendship and truth.
Recruited by a magical bird to thwart encroaching creatures, an insecure teen explores her sexual identity.
Seventh grader Eren Evers likes escaping on her bike into the woods near her Oregon home, “away from school, her mom, and even her friends.” Ambivalent about boys and dating, Eren reluctantly accepts an invitation to a dance with classmate Alex Ruiz because her best friends expect it rather than considering what she really wants. After Eren rescues a small, frost-covered bird named Oriti-ti, it speaks, pronouncing her its champion in the war its nongendered bird community is waging against villainous frostfangs—icy, wolflike creatures who exploit self-doubt to undermine their prey. When Oriti-ti saves Eren and Alex from an attacking frostfang, Alex also commits to the fight. Eren’s friendship with Alex grows, and she develops clarity about her feelings through her friendship with his older sister, Luisa, who is asexual and panromantic. With a frostfang attack on the school dance looming, Eren must accept her true self: Asserting her aromantic identity helps her be strong and brave enough to stop the frostfangs. Using frostfangs as a metaphor for the debilitating effects of self-doubt, this contemporary fantasy realistically examines Eren’s confusion, fear of alienation, and suffocation as she grapples with her true sexuality. Multidimensional supporting characters with their own identity issues and vulnerabilities add veracity and depth. Eren reads as White; Alex is Latinx.
A timely middle-grade fantasy grounded in themes of friendship and truth. (Fantasy. 9-12)Pub Date: May 10, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-250-78344-8
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2022
However the compelling fitness of theme and event and the apt but unexpected imagery (the opening sentences compare the...
At a time when death has become an acceptable, even voguish subject in children's fiction, Natalie Babbitt comes through with a stylistic gem about living forever.
Protected Winnie, the ten-year-old heroine, is not immortal, but when she comes upon young Jesse Tuck drinking from a secret spring in her parents' woods, she finds herself involved with a family who, having innocently drunk the same water some 87 years earlier, haven't aged a moment since. Though the mood is delicate, there is no lack of action, with the Tucks (previously suspected of witchcraft) now pursued for kidnapping Winnie; Mae Tuck, the middle aged mother, striking and killing a stranger who is onto their secret and would sell the water; and Winnie taking Mae's place in prison so that the Tucks can get away before she is hanged from the neck until....? Though Babbitt makes the family a sad one, most of their reasons for discontent are circumstantial and there isn't a great deal of wisdom to be gleaned from their fate or Winnie's decision not to share it.
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1975
ISBN: 0312369816
Page Count: 164
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: April 13, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1975
Charming, poignant, and thoughtfully woven.
An aspiring scientist and a budding artist become friends and help each other with dream projects.
Unfolding in mid-1980s Sacramento, California, this story stars 12-year-olds Rosalind and Benjamin as first-person narrators in alternating chapters. Ro’s father, a fellow space buff, was killed by a drunk driver; the rocket they were working on together lies unfinished in her closet. As for Benji, not only has his best friend, Amir, moved away, but the comic book holding the clue for locating his dad is also missing. Along with their profound personal losses, the protagonists share a fixation with the universe’s intriguing potential: Ro decides to complete the rocket and hopes to launch mementos of her father into outer space while Benji’s conviction that aliens and UFOs are real compels his imagination and creativity as an artist. An accident in science class triggers a chain of events forcing Benji and Ro, who is new to the school, to interact and unintentionally learn each other’s secrets. They resolve to find Benji’s dad—a famous comic-book artist—and partner to finish Ro’s rocket for the science fair. Together, they overcome technical, scheduling, and geographical challenges. Readers will be drawn in by amusing and fantastical elements in the comic book theme, high emotional stakes that arouse sympathy, and well-drawn character development as the protagonists navigate life lessons around grief, patience, self-advocacy, and standing up for others. Ro is biracial (Chinese/White); Benji is White.
Charming, poignant, and thoughtfully woven. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Jan. 12, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-06-300888-5
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2020
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