McElroy’s debut follows a young girl named Luna, her stuffed puppy Tiffy and her grandfather as they venture into a mysterious, fantastical space.
The story begins when a profoundly unhappy Luna discovers a winking gnome and a gate in the hedgerow that wasn’t there before. Accompanied by her grandfather, a timid Luna sets off on a whimsical journey through the gate. On the other side is a place called Spirithaven, home to a host of helpful and not so helpful fantasy characters. There, Luna is surprised to find that her stuffed pup Tiffy has become a real dog. She valiantly faces challenges in Spirithaven, both with and without her grandfather. The story is littered with allegorical characters and places like Sanctuary Park, Memory Lane and the Nothing. While allegory is a tool used powerfully by McElroy, it sometimes yields unwieldy phrases like “the Emotive Arbiter.” Some readers may find the allegorical approach heavy handed and miss a more nuanced approach, but others may find it works well to help children delve into the painful subject matter of loss. Luna provides a compelling voice to childhood depression as she numbly forges on alone through The Nothing, bravely confronting each of her personified emotions at the end of the gray tunnel. Through Luna, young readers are guided through the process of dealing with their emotions after the loss of a loved one. Themes of facing fear, doubt and loneliness are apt messages for kids and well-executed within the story. The reading level, length and subject matter make this an ideal read for parents to read alongside their grieving children.
A simple, yet powerful, story that will comfort children dealing with grief.
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2012
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Amazon Digital Services
Review Posted Online: March 22, 2012
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Cookie-cutter predictability.
After all the daring escapes in the How To Catch… series, will the kids be able to catch Santa?
Oddly, previous installments saw the children trying (and failing) to catch an elf and a reindeer, but both are easily captured in this story. Santa, however, is slippery. Tempted but not fooled by poinsettias, a good book (attached to a slingshot armed with a teddy bear projectile), and, of course, milk and cookies, Santa foils every plan. The hero in a red suit has a job to do. Presents must be placed, and lists must be checked. He has no time for traps and foolery (except if you’re the elf, who falls for every one of them). Luckily, Santa helps the little rascal escape each time. Little is new here—the kids resort to similar snares found in previous works: netting, lures, and technological wonders such as the Santa Catcher 5000. Although the rhythm falters quite a bit (“How did we get out you ask? / It looked like we were done for. / Santa’s magic is very real, / and I cannot reveal more”), fans of the series may not mind. Santa and Christmas just might be enough to overcome the flaws. Santa and the elf are light-skinned, one of the children is brown-skinned, and the other presents as Asian. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Cookie-cutter predictability. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2023
ISBN: 9781728274270
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks Wonderland
Review Posted Online: Aug. 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs.
The Heffley family’s house undergoes a disastrous attempt at home improvement.
When Great Aunt Reba dies, she leaves some money to the family. Greg’s mom calls a family meeting to determine what to do with their share, proposing home improvements and then overruling the family’s cartoonish wish lists and instead pushing for an addition to the kitchen. Before bringing in the construction crew, the Heffleys attempt to do minor maintenance and repairs themselves—during which Greg fails at the work in various slapstick scenes. Once the professionals are brought in, the problems keep getting worse: angry neighbors, terrifying problems in walls, and—most serious—civil permitting issues that put the kibosh on what work’s been done. Left with only enough inheritance to patch and repair the exterior of the house—and with the school’s dismal standardized test scores as a final straw—Greg’s mom steers the family toward moving, opening up house-hunting and house-selling storylines (and devastating loyal Rowley, who doesn’t want to lose his best friend). While Greg’s positive about the move, he’s not completely uncaring about Rowley’s action. (And of course, Greg himself is not as unaffected as he wishes.) The gags include effectively placed callbacks to seemingly incidental events (the “stress lizard” brought in on testing day is particularly funny) and a lampoon of after-school-special–style problem books. Just when it seems that the Heffleys really will move, a new sequence of chaotic trouble and property destruction heralds a return to the status quo. Whew.
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs. (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 8-12)Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3903-3
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Nov. 18, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
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