Clever, multistranded, and off the charts in read-aloud potential.
The winding tale skeptical Thomas and his pesky but acute little sister, Emily, tease out of crusty Meg McThorn, supervisor of the castle scriptorium, includes a fire-breathing dragon, knights, wee folk, and the possibility of hidden treasure—and so seems hard to believe.
However, as Meg tartly asserts, it’s not a “Once upon a time” thing but “a completely true story, with real people I actually know.” But was the siblings’ mother really once the dragon’s captive—until she helped their father “rescue” her? Are there crocodiles in the moat? And gryphons and tricksy pixies in the nearby woods? Tucking scores of cozy, crosshatched sketches into her short chapters as well as sly literary winks in the form of ironic banter and sibling squabbles (Emily, despite being only 9, nearly always comes out on top), Cate nets readers in a web of story as deftly as Meg nets her own audience of two. As past becomes prologue to what happens after the children have adventures of their own, and their noble parents finally come back from, as Thomas puts it, “a stuffy conference about moldy old books and scrolls and manuscripts written in languages no one speaks anymore,” Meg’s yarn turns out to be verifiably true…or mostly. The female contingent leads the all-White cast, but the boys and men put on decent enough showings, and despite occasional fraught turns, no one, draconic or otherwise, ends up slain.
Clever, multistranded, and off the charts in read-aloud potential. (Fantasy. 8-11)Pub Date: April 12, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-5362-0451-3
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: March 15, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2022
A different take on a difficult subject.
A young Jewish girl and her family must flee when the Nazis march into Paris.
Before the Nazis came, life was good. But when the “bad men came / in their brown shirts, guns in hands,” everything changed. All Jews must wear yellow stars, Papa can no longer work, the family is forced from their home, and they are cursed in the streets. They leave the city to live in the woods, enduring hunger, cold and fear of capture. They embark on a long, arduous journey over the mountains to Spain and then across to England and loving relatives. The little girl is aware of the dangers and her parents’ courage, and she remains steadfastly sure that a guardian angel is watching over them. When they return to Paris at the end of the war, there is a beautiful, monumental angel, surely the very one who had kept them safe, holding up the roof of their new apartment building. The girl narrates in an oddly dispassionate free-verse voice, so sure is she of the happy outcome for her family. Though an author’s note provides additional information about the war and the Holocaust and the staggering number of deaths, it will be difficult for young readers to make the connection between the narrator’s experience and the grim reality of the millions who perished. Green’s mixed-media illustrations are appropriately dark and menacing.
A different take on a difficult subject. (Picture book. 8-10)Pub Date: March 3, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-399-16741-6
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: Dec. 9, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2015
It’s a distinct change of pace for two authors better known for intensely romantic teen fantasies, but they carry it off...
Magical animals abound in Pip’s world, and she loves them all—especially since she can talk to them.
Not that anyone believes her, because everyone knows that magical animals can’t talk. But her unique ability comes in superhandy when the Georgia town where her aunt Emma runs a veterinary clinic for the local HobGrackles, Unicorns and like extranatural fauna is threatened by an outbreak of Fuzzles—recognizable to Star Trek fans as similar to the adorable and fertile “tribbles” but with the added tendency to burst into flames when startled. Pearce and Stiefvater pass up no chance to exploit the comedic possibilities, keeping the level of actual danger to a minimum and stuffing the supporting cast with new and traditional mythical creatures of diverse temperament (most memorably a hysterically skittish Unicorn: “Why! Why is the sky so blue today? What does it mean?”). The authors pitch doughty Pip into a nonstop set of crises as she contrives to save the town and persuade the Fuzzles to vanish. Having publicly expressed an intention to depict mythological creatures cuter than baby seals for this outing, Stiefvater outdoes herself in the illustrations with portraits of hopelessly cuddly Griffins, Grims and other generally fearsome monsters sporting big, winsome eyes. Stay tuned for more hilarious ructions.
It’s a distinct change of pace for two authors better known for intensely romantic teen fantasies, but they carry it off with aplomb. (Fantasy. 8-11)Pub Date: April 28, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-545-70926-2
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2015
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