Lovely to look at and to ponder, best suited to children of a philosophical bent.
In 1830 a tearful young woman flings a ring into the air, and it lands in a seaside meadow in Ireland.
That is the last time the woman appears; the ring’s inscription, “Love Never Dies,” appears on the title page and is never clearly seen again. The tale follows the ring from its first landing to its ultimate destination. Shifted by erosion, then sheltered by an oak tree until caught in a deer’s hoof and kicked into a wheat field, the ring is then picked up in a crow’s beak, dropped into the sea, and swallowed by a fish. When the fish is caught and gutted, the ring is discovered and sold in New York City. Jules and Sonny, who earn money as subway performers in 1967, buy the ring, then head home through the winter night. Graham employs language that emphasizes lovely quiet moments and the continuous, slow passage of time, as “the seasons kept turning,” and “moons passed many times overhead.” The lovely, softly toned illustrations beautifully complement the text. Sonny and Jules, whose emotions are depicted mainly through body language, present white. However, indications of time, whether specific or esoteric, are incomprehensible to very young children, who are grounded in the now, gearing it for older readers than the preschoolers recommended by the publisher.
Lovely to look at and to ponder, best suited to children of a philosophical bent. (Picture book. 5-9)Pub Date: Dec. 11, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-7636-9884-3
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Sept. 16, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2018
A jam-packed opener sure to satisfy lovers of the princess genre.
Ice princess Lina must navigate family and school in this early chapter read.
The family picnic is today. This is not a typical gathering, since Lina’s maternal relatives are a royal family of Windtamers who have power over the weather and live in castles floating on clouds. Lina herself is mixed race, with black hair and a tan complexion like her Asian-presenting mother’s; her Groundling father appears to be a white human. While making a grand entrance at the castle of her grandfather, the North Wind, she fails to successfully ride a gust of wind and crashes in front of her entire family. This prompts her stern grandfather to ask that Lina move in with him so he can teach her to control her powers. Desperate to avoid this, Lina and her friend Claudia, who is black, get Lina accepted at the Hilltop Science and Arts Academy. Lina’s parents allow her to go as long as she does lessons with grandpa on Saturdays. However, fitting in at a Groundling school is rough, especially when your powers start freak winter storms! With the story unfurling in diary format, bright-pink–highlighted grayscale illustrations help move the plot along. There are slight gaps in the storytelling and the pacing is occasionally uneven, but Lina is full of spunk and promotes self-acceptance.
A jam-packed opener sure to satisfy lovers of the princess genre. (Fantasy. 5-8)Pub Date: June 25, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-338-35393-8
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: March 26, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2019
A fitting farewell, still funny, acute, and positive in its view of human nature even in its 37th episode.
A long-running series reaches its closing chapters.
Having, as Kline notes in her warm valedictory acknowledgements, taken 30 years to get through second and third grade, Harry Spooger is overdue to move on—but not just into fourth grade, it turns out, as his family is moving to another town as soon as the school year ends. The news leaves his best friend, narrator “Dougo,” devastated…particularly as Harry doesn’t seem all that fussed about it. With series fans in mind, the author takes Harry through a sort of last-day-of-school farewell tour. From his desk he pulls a burned hot dog and other items that featured in past episodes, says goodbye to Song Lee and other classmates, and even (for the first time ever) leads Doug and readers into his house and memento-strewn room for further reminiscing. Of course, Harry isn’t as blasé about the move as he pretends, and eyes aren’t exactly dry when he departs. But hardly is he out of sight before Doug is meeting Mohammad, a new neighbor from Syria who (along with further diversifying a cast that began as mostly white but has become increasingly multiethnic over the years) will also be starting fourth grade at summer’s end, and planning a written account of his “horrible” buddy’s exploits. Finished illustrations not seen.
A fitting farewell, still funny, acute, and positive in its view of human nature even in its 37th episode. (Fiction. 7-9)Pub Date: Nov. 27, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-451-47963-1
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Sept. 16, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2018
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