A soulful story that captures the magic of possibility, even in difficult times. (author’s note, illustrator’s note,...
A 12-year-old Sudanese girl struggles for survival after a janjaweed attack on her town forces her family to seek safety in an overcrowded refugee camp.
Amira Bright has a dream: to leave her South Darfur farm and attend Gad Primary School, where girls are accepted. Muma, her mother, is a traditionalist about girls’ roles, while Dando, her father, and Old Anwar, a lifelong neighbor, are more supportive. Dando and Amira even have a favorite game called “What Else is Possible?” But when militia attackers suddenly upend her life, Amira is overcome with silent heartache. Relief comes when an aid worker at Kalma refugee camp offers her a yellow pad and a red pencil, eventually restoring her free expression. Telling her story in first-person verse, Pinkney uses deft strokes to create engaging characters through the poetry of their observations and the poignancy of their circumstances. This tale of displacement in a complex, war-torn country is both accessible and fluent, striking just the right tone for middle-grade readers. Evans’ elemental drawings illuminate the spirit and yearnings of Amira, the earnest protagonist.
A soulful story that captures the magic of possibility, even in difficult times. (author’s note, illustrator’s note, glossary) (Verse fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 16, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-316-24780-1
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: July 21, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2014
A thoughtful exploration of grief, family lore, and human connection.
Juniper Creedy and her friends embark on a desperate quest after her older brother goes missing in action in Afghanistan.
Juni has always known that her family, descended from the Brothers Grimm, is cursed: According to her grandmother Anya, the family’s extreme luck—both good and bad—comes from an encounter their famous ancestors had with a Greek witch. But despite her own brushes with fate, including lifelong asthma attacks, the curse doesn’t feel real to Juni until the Army delivers the news that Connor is missing. Now, her parents are distant and unreceptive to Juni’s conviction that Connor is still alive, but Anya shares new information with Juni, partly through first-person journal entries, about her own childhood and the curse. So when it’s time for the annual end-of-summer camping trip with her friends Mason and Gabby (chaperoned by Luca, Gabby’s older brother and Connor’s best friend), Juni requests a few additional stops in hopes of finding a witch and breaking the curse. Holczer’s clear, gentle prose allows the emotional and descriptive elements of the text to shine in this multilayered road-trip story, complete with flashbacks at key landmarks. While Juni’s Grimm ancestry isn’t critical to the plot, it underscores her faith in the fairy-tale elements that ultimately enable catharsis around Connor’s fate. Most characters are coded White; Gabby and Luca’s family is cued as Latinx.
A thoughtful exploration of grief, family lore, and human connection. (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Jan. 5, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-984813-99-2
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A bouquet of quirks, whimsy, sweetness, and magic.
A girl awaiting her destiny must uncover lost treasure to save her home.
Orphan Emma lives above the Boneyard Cafe, her family’s business, right next to the cemetery. She comes from a long line of Wildflowers: the women in her family each experience a Destiny Dream, a specific dream that steers them to extraordinary lives. When it looks as though Emma’s grandmother (Granny Blue, a tattooed retired boxer) will be forced to sell their home, Emma looks for answers in a graveyard legend. The Conductor, a Civil War–era ghost, is said to have left treasure in Blackbird Hollow. With the help of Cody Belle, her trusty best friend, and Earl Chance, a boy newly returned to town and traumatized into muteness after a close encounter with a tornado, and guidance from her own less-than-clear Destiny Dream, Emma uses town lore to hunt for the treasure. Despite ghosts and graves, the story avoids the macabre and instead focuses on the relationships among memory, sadness, and joy, especially as Emma’s still recovering from her mother’s death. The mystery’s as much fun as a treasure hunt should be, and the clues are augmented by magical flowers. Blackbird Hollow is as largely white as might be expected of an Appalachian holler, but the story avoids twee with such details as Granny Blue’s Harley and Emma’s fondness for rock-’n’-roll.
A bouquet of quirks, whimsy, sweetness, and magic. (Fantasy. 8-12)Pub Date: Feb. 23, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-545-55274-5
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2016
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