A story that features a clear educational message and diverse, engaging characters, with an aspiring scientist at its center.
A young science enthusiast discovers a spider and shares her excitement with her parents and classmates in Norton’s debut middle-grade novel.
Fifth-grader Madeleine Morales is known to all as “Muddy” after a messy incident at a nearby pond. When she discovers a large spider building a web outside her house, she’s instantly enamored and determined to learn everything she can about the arachnid’s habits and habitat. Muddy gets help in her pursuit of knowledge from her parents, despite Papá’s aversion to arachnids; from her teacher, who introduces new subjects with rap lyrics; and from a diverse collection of classmates. Muddy is devastated when the spider, which she named Hilandera, goes missing after a few days, but she uses further research and hypothesis-testing to discover what happened. The book’s character diversity feels natural rather than forced, and Muddy’s closest friends—Gregory, always on the hunt for snacks; Ava, who has a fondness for bathroom humor; and Javier, a devoted pet owner—make a delightful crew that’s willing to indulge Muddy’s new fascination with spiders before dragging her off for another romp in the pond. The book is sometimes a bit too enamored of its own turns of phrase; “arach-a-doo,” for example, is Ava’s rendering of “arachnid,” and after Muddy identifies a shape in Hilandera’s web as a “zigzaggin’ zipper,” she uses that label every time she refers to it. However, Norton does an effective job of introducing educational vocabulary without becoming didactic. Muddy’s blend of Spanish and English flows naturally, although one of Norton’s word choices may be inappropriate for some markets: in the book’s Mexican- and Central American-influenced Spanish,“bicho” is the appropriate word for the insects that make up Hilandera’s diet, but to Puerto Rican readers, that same word is a reference to male anatomy. This isn’t addressed in the book’s glossaries, which provide pronunciations and definitions for the Spanish words and the scientific terms throughout the text.
A story that features a clear educational message and diverse, engaging characters, with an aspiring scientist at its center.Pub Date: March 6, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-940834-29-0
Page Count: 184
Publisher: Progressive Rising Phoenix Press
Review Posted Online: June 27, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An absorbing fantasy centered on a resilient female protagonist facing growth, change, and self-empowerment.
In Florence’s middle-grade fantasy novel, a young girl’s heart is tested in the face of an evil, spreading Darkness.
Eleven-year-old Lydia, “freckle-cheeked and round-eyed, with hair the color of pine bark and fair skin,” is struggling with the knowledge that she has reached the age to apprentice as an herbalist. Lydia is reluctant to leave her beloved, magical Mulberry Glen and her cozy Housetree in the woods—she’ll miss Garder, the Glen’s respected philosopher; her fairy guardian Pit; her human friend Livy; and even the mischievous part-elf, part-imp, part-human twins Zale and Zamilla. But the twins go missing after hearing of a soul-sapping Darkness that has swallowed a forest and is creeping into minds and engulfing entire towns. They have secretly left to find a rare fruit that, it is said, will stop the Darkness if thrown into the heart of the mountain that rises out of the lethal forest. Lydia follows, determined to find the twins before they, too, fall victim to the Darkness. During her journey, accompanied by new friends, she gradually realizes that she herself has a dangerous role to play in the quest to stop the Darkness. In this well-crafted fantasy, Florence skillfully equates the physical manifestation of Darkness with the feelings of insecurity and powerlessness that Lydia first struggles with when thinking of leaving the Glen. Such negative thoughts grow more intrusive the closer she and her friends come to the Darkness—and to Lydia’s ultimate, powerfully rendered test of character, which leads to a satisfyingly realistic, not quite happily-ever-after ending. Highlights include a delightfully haunting, reality-shifting library and a deft sprinkling of Latin throughout the text; Pit’s pet name for Lydia is mea flosculus (“my little flower”). Fine-lined ink drawings introducing each chapter add a pleasing visual element to this well-grounded fairy tale.
An absorbing fantasy centered on a resilient female protagonist facing growth, change, and self-empowerment.Pub Date: Jan. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9781956393095
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Waxwing Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 14, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A book that will make young dog-owners smile in recognition and confirm dogless readers' worst suspicions about the mayhem caused by pets, even winsome ones. Sam, who bears passing resemblance to an affable golden retriever, is praised for fetching the family newspaper, and goes on to fetch every other newspaper on the block. In the next story, only the children love Sam's swimming; he is yelled at by lifeguards and fishermen alike when he splashes through every watering hole he can find. Finally, there is woe to the entire family when Sam is bored and lonely for one long night. Boland has an essential message, captured in both both story and illustrations of this Easy-to-Read: Kids and dogs belong together, especially when it's a fun-loving canine like Sam. An appealing tale. (Picture book. 4-8)
Pub Date: April 1, 1996
ISBN: 0-8037-1530-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1996
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