A fantastical, frost-filled, coming-of-age debut.
A contemporary girl finds her life magically transformed after learning her father’s identity.
Like her namesake, 12-year-old Owl McBride has feathery, “white-blond hair,” “almost yellow” eyes, and a nose on the “beaky side,” but she lives a nearly normal life with her single-parent mother. Raised on her mother’s stories about meeting Owl’s father in “magical wintry lands,” Owl’s otherwise clueless about his identity. As winter approaches, Owl’s skin starts prickling, turns blue white, and sparkles with frost, triggering an “almost overwhelming” need to know about her father. When her mother reveals that Jack Frost, the legendary frost spirit, is Owl’s father, she’s stunned. During their first frosty encounter, Owl finds Jack a wild, elemental creature lacking humanity, while he eschews his paternity and views her as a challenge. Seeking Jack’s guidance to control her emerging powers, Owl journeys to his winter kingdom and eventually confronts his elemental rivals, hoping to earn her rightful place as his daughter. Despite her new powers, Owl remains a vulnerable, credible girl, grounded by her best friend as she learns what it means to be Jack Frost’s kid. Her lively, suspenseful, first-person narration alternates with dreamlike sequences featuring such earth spirits as the North Wind, the Queen of May, and the Green Man.
A fantastical, frost-filled, coming-of-age debut. (Fantasy. 8-12)Pub Date: Nov. 7, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-06-267148-6
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Aug. 22, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
Plays to Rowling’s fan base; equally suited for gifting and reading aloud or alone.
A 7-year-old descends into the Land of the Lost in search of his beloved comfort object.
Jack has loved Dur Pig long enough to wear the beanbag toy into tattered shapelessness—which is why, when his angry older stepsister chucks it out the car window on Christmas Eve, he not only throws a titanic tantrum and viciously rejects the titular replacement pig, but resolves to sneak out to find DP. To his amazement, the Christmas Pig offers to guide him to the place where all lost Things go. Whiffs of childhood classics, assembled with admirable professionalism into a jolly adventure story that plays all the right chords, hang about this tale of loss and love. Along with family drama, Rowling stirs in fantasy, allegory, and generous measures of social and political commentary. Pursued by the Land’s cruel and monstrous Loser, Jack and the Christmas Pig pass through territories from the Wastes of the Unlamented, where booger-throwing Bad Habits roam, to the luxurious City of the Missed for encounters with Hope, Happiness, and Power (a choleric king who rejects a vote that doesn’t go his way). A joyful reunion on the Island of the Beloved turns poignant, but Christmas Eve being “a night for miracles and lost causes,” perhaps there’s still a chance (with a little help from Santa) for everything to come right? In both the narrative and Field’s accomplished, soft-focus illustrations, the cast presents White.
Plays to Rowling’s fan base; equally suited for gifting and reading aloud or alone. (Fantasy. 8-12)Pub Date: Oct. 12, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-338-79023-8
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Oct. 20, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A verdant, enchanting read let down by poorly executed diverse representation.
Old riddles provide a modern girl with a summer adventure.
Caspia Turkel would rather stay in her small Maine town than spend 11 weeks (the whole summer!) in Brooklyn, even though her parents are excited about the opportunities awaiting them. Within a hand-painted dresser in their rented apartment, Caspia finds a stack of pale-green linen envelopes, tied with a velvet ribbon. The letters inside were sent in the 1950s and ’60s to a girl named Minna from her loving sister, Rosalind, and they contain a series of riddles about plants. Even though she’s never given much thought to growing things before, Caspia dives into this scavenger hunt and learns unexpected things about what Rosalind dubbed the “Green Kingdom.” She also meets amazing people on her journeys around her urban neighborhood, which includes the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. The broad range of featured plants includes many that are likely to be familiar to readers. Co-authors Hartung, who has botanical expertise, and Funke, whose original German text was translated by Anna Schmitt Funke, add magic to the mundane, collaborating to create a realistic story that nevertheless feels wonderfully fantastical. Castrillón’s delicate illustrations have an old-fashioned feel and provide marvelous atmosphere as well as effectively highlighting the various plant species. Caspia, who’s white, makes a diverse group of friends in Brooklyn, but many of their portrayals feel exoticizing and othering, marring the attempt to celebrate diversity. (This review was updated to reflect further communication from the publisher regarding the translation credit.)
A verdant, enchanting read let down by poorly executed diverse representation. (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: April 1, 2025
ISBN: 9780593959305
Page Count: 224
Publisher: DK Publishing
Review Posted Online: Dec. 28, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2025
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