A multilayered tale of loss and renewal with elements both topical and universal.
An evacuee of Ukraine’s Chernobyl disaster is forced to leave her puppy behind.
In the wake of the catastrophe, soldiers shot all abandoned pets and livestock, but a few survived, and it is from that glimmer of hope that McGowan spins a Call of the Wild–style tale (though with a different outcome). Two plotlines intertwine: Following the tearful separation from her beloved Samoyed mix, Zoya, 7-year-old Natasha grows up to become a brilliant but solitary science teacher who, over 20 years later, returns to the still devastated deadlands with a team of veterinarians to research radioactivity levels. Meanwhile, Zoya makes it in the wild, mating with a wolf and raising two offspring, Misha and Bratan, before succumbing to a fatal fight with a lynx. Misha survives to become an alpha male and then, on the brink of death at an advanced age, is rescued by a kindly security guard and passed on to Natasha to spend his last years guarding one last domestic pack. The animal portion of the story is the dominant one, and along with being full of vivid naturalistic details about food and setting, it lays out rich webs of nonanthropomorphic but recognizable family and pack dynamics, emotional attachments, and differences in character among wolves, dogs, and hybrids. The human cast presents as White. Final art not seen.
A multilayered tale of loss and renewal with elements both topical and universal. (historical note) (Animal fiction. 10-13)Pub Date: Sept. 13, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-86154-319-9
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Rock the Boat/Oneworld
Review Posted Online: June 7, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2022
Dolphin lovers will appreciate this look at our complicated relationship with these marine mammals.
Is dolphin-assisted therapy so beneficial to patients that it’s worth keeping a wild dolphin captive?
Twelve-year-old Lily has lived with her emotionally distant oncologist stepfather and a succession of nannies since her mother died in a car accident two years ago. Nannies leave because of the difficulty of caring for Adam, Lily’s severely autistic 4-year-old half brother. The newest, Suzanne, seems promising, but Lily is tired of feeling like a planet orbiting the sun Adam. When she meets blind Zoe, who will attend the same private middle school as Lily in the fall, Lily’s happy to have a friend. However, Zoe’s take on the plight of the captive dolphin, Nori, used in Adam’s therapy opens Lily’s eyes. She knows she must use her influence over her stepfather, who is consulting on Nori’s treatment for cancer (caused by an oil spill), to free the animal. Lily’s got several fine lines to walk, as she works to hold onto her new friend, convince her stepfather of the rightness of releasing Nori, and do what’s best for Adam. In her newest exploration of animal-human relationships, Rorby’s lonely, mature heroine faces tough but realistic situations. Siblings of children on the spectrum will identify with Lily. If the tale flirts with sentimentality and some of the characters are strident in their views, the whole never feels maudlin or didactic.
Dolphin lovers will appreciate this look at our complicated relationship with these marine mammals. (Fiction. 10-13)Pub Date: May 26, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-545-67605-2
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2015
It’s great to see these kids “so enthusiastic about committing high treason.” (historical note) (Historical fiction. 10-12)
Near the end of World War II, two kids join their parents in a plot to kill Adolf Hitler.
Max, 12, lives with his parents and his older sister in a Berlin that’s under constant air bombardment. During one such raid, a mortally wounded man stumbles into the white German family’s home and gasps out his last wish: “The Führer must die.” With this nighttime visitation, Max and Gerta discover their parents have been part of a resistance cell, and the siblings want in. They meet a colorful band of upper-class types who seem almost too whimsical to be serious. Despite her charming levity, Prussian aristocrat and cell leader Frau Becker is grimly aware of the stakes. She enlists Max and Gerta as couriers who sneak forged identification papers to Jews in hiding. Max and Gerta are merely (and realistically) cogs in the adults’ plans, but there’s plenty of room for their own heroism. They escape capture, rescue each other when they’re caught out during an air raid, and willingly put themselves repeatedly at risk to catch a spy. The fictional plotters—based on a mix of several real anti-Hitler resistance cells—are portrayed with a genuine humor, giving them the space to feel alive even in such a slim volume.
It’s great to see these kids “so enthusiastic about committing high treason.” (historical note) (Historical fiction. 10-12)Pub Date: April 21, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-338-35902-2
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Jan. 20, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2020
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