Imaginative worldbuilding and adventure mixed with unique characters and quirky humor.
A boy summons the courage to help friends, whomever or whatever they might be.
Young Iggie is moving in with his mother after living with an aunt and uncle. As he arrives in Peculiar Woods, his aunt warns him to stay away from a mysterious lake. Iggie’s suspicions that he’s entered a new world are confirmed when he wanders off his first night and learns that the inanimate objects here can walk and talk. On his horrible first day at his new school, Iggie cowers in the face of mean bullies, but another opportunity for courage presents itself when he meets two chess pieces—a demanding pawn and a philosophical king—who need help getting to their ancient underwater city. Accompanied by a baby blanket and a chair who needs frequent yoga breaks to cope with stress, Iggie agrees to help, and they sail across the lake, flee ornery beavers, and are rescued by a washing machine named Lazarus Gallington. Rounded cartoon illustrations build suspense at pivotal moments. Though the tale bursts with humor, it’s also a tender exploration of the search for home—both the chess pieces’ journey toward a literal home and Iggie’s adjustment to a new life with his mother. Iggie and his family are light-skinned; a new girl he befriends at school is brown-skinned.
Imaginative worldbuilding and adventure mixed with unique characters and quirky humor. (Graphic fiction. 8-11)Pub Date: May 23, 2023
ISBN: 9781524879297
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing
Review Posted Online: March 13, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2023
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
SEEN & HEARD
Ironically, by choosing such a dramatic catalyst, the author weakens the adventure’s impact overall and leaves readers to...
A group of talking farm animals catches wind of the farm owner’s intention to burn the barn (with them in it) for insurance money and hatches a plan to flee.
Bond begins briskly—within the first 10 pages, barn cat Burdock has overheard Dewey Baxter’s nefarious plan, and by Page 17, all of the farm animals have been introduced and Burdock is sharing the terrifying news. Grady, Dewey’s (ever-so-slightly) more principled brother, refuses to go along, but instead of standing his ground, he simply disappears. This leaves the animals to fend for themselves. They do so by relying on their individual strengths and one another. Their talents and personalities match their species, bringing an element of realism to balance the fantasy elements. However, nothing can truly compensate for the bland horror of the premise. Not the growing sense of family among the animals, the serendipitous intervention of an unknown inhabitant of the barn, nor the convenient discovery of an alternate home. Meanwhile, Bond’s black-and-white drawings, justly compared to those of Garth Williams, amplify the sense of dissonance. Charming vignettes and single- and double-page illustrations create a pastoral world into which the threat of large-scale violence comes as a shock.
Ironically, by choosing such a dramatic catalyst, the author weakens the adventure’s impact overall and leaves readers to ponder the awkward coincidences that propel the plot. (Animal fantasy. 8-10)Pub Date: July 7, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-544-33217-1
Page Count: 256
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: March 31, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2015
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