A compelling narrative with plenty of local detail.
In Moss’ middle-grade novel, a girl who’s about to start middle school must solve a mystery while visiting New Orleans.
The story opens in 1965 with 8-year-old Brigette Davies finding her grandfather, Papere, in his basement adding “snow” to a photograph with a special tool. Fifty-seven years later, in 2022,a girl named Morgan Draca is sad to leave her best friends behind right at the end of summer, but she’s delighted to find out that family friend Sheila will spend time with her, her brother, and their mother during their visit to New Orleans, where Sheila’s family has a long history. Sheila’s almost concluded her search for her great-grandfather Papere’s missing sheet music, and Morgan loves a good mystery almost as much as she loves history. Sheila’s breakthrough in the search for the missing music has ended at Café Du Monde, where Papere’s diary indicated the music was kept safe, but nobody there seems to know anything about it. Morgan is desperate to continue the search; however, Sheila and Morgan are forbidden from doing so, as it’s caused too much disruption and disappointment for Sheila’s family. On a later visit to Café Du Monde, though, Morgan notices a photo that reignites the investigation. Later, Sheila takes the group to her great-grandparents’ final resting place, where Morgan notices another key clue. The New Orleans visit, with Sheila as a tour guide, is rich with historical tidbits regarding the French Quarter, the World War II Museum, and the bayou—all of which are connected to Sheila’s great-grandparents’ lives. The descriptions of local political and social history, jazz, and geographic phenomena are as enticing as the characters’ search, and Moss tells the story with prose that never talks down to young readers. Morgan’s sense of curiosity and love of reading (“She looked for her phone, curious how long she had been reading; she hadn’t even noticed how far the sun had fallen in the sky”) are utterly inspiring.
A compelling narrative with plenty of local detail.Pub Date: May 13, 2023
ISBN: 9781737993537
Page Count: 232
Publisher: Venerable Siren Publishing, LLC
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The journey is even gently funny—Omakayas’s brother spends much of the year with a porcupine on his head. Charming and...
This third entry in the Birchbark House series takes Omakayas and her family west from their home on the Island of the Golden-Breasted Woodpecker, away from land the U.S. government has claimed.
Difficulties abound; the unknown landscape is fraught with danger, and they are nearing hostile Bwaanag territory. Omakayas’s family is not only close, but growing: The travelers adopt two young chimookoman (white) orphans along the way. When treachery leaves them starving and alone in a northern Minnesota winter, it will take all of their abilities and love to survive. The heartwarming account of Omakayas’s year of travel explores her changing family relationships and culminates in her first moon, the onset of puberty. It would be understandable if this darkest-yet entry in Erdrich’s response to the Little House books were touched by bitterness, yet this gladdening story details Omakayas’s coming-of-age with appealing optimism.
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-06-029787-9
Page Count: 208
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2008
A story of perseverance and love.
Onyx has a secret.
It’s 1970, and following the death of his grandmother, Onyx, a 12-year-old Black boy, is left living alone with his mother, who has early onset dementia. Fearing losing Mama, too, he keeps her condition a secret from everyone and instead vows to make sure that he keeps up the show of everything being OK at home. His days are filled with completing chores, leaving sticky notes for Mama to read when she wakes up, attending Catholic school, and catching up with his cousins and other relatives when he can. Onyx relies on the knowledge passed on to him by his grandmother to manage their Alexandria, Virginia, home—shopping for groceries and preparing simple meals for himself and his mother. As her condition begins to worsen, however, he desperately tries to find a way to help Mama get her memories back. Facing the looming threat of a home visit by social workers, Onyx takes bigger and bigger risks in his attempts to return his mother to her former self. Written in verse through the eyes of a child, the novel tackles complex topics honestly yet hopefully. As readers follow Onyx in his endeavors to help his mother, they’re also given a glimpse into being a young Black boy who, for all his troubles in life, has just as many joyful moments with his family and friends.
A story of perseverance and love. (author’s note) (Verse historical fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2024
ISBN: 9781250908780
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2024
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