by Cara Judea Alhadeff , illustrated by Micaela Amateau Amato ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 6, 2017
A mystical, magical adventure with a serious message that should spur conversations.
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In this illustrated fantasy, a boy and his imaginary dog travel via whale, learning about science, history, ecology, and more.
Zazu is a young boy with light-brown skin and curly hair; he has Sephardi and Mizrahi ancestry on his mother’s side, and African American (Barbados and India) on his father’s. Every night, Zazu travels back in time, visiting his ancestors whose diaspora took them all over the world, learning “history that we never hear about in school.” An especially wild escapade begins when Zazu and his imaginary malamute husky named Cocomiso travel by humpback whale from the present (2016) back through time to locations like the Rock of Gibraltar; Ouazzane, Morocco; the Caribbean; Kerala, India; the Persian Gulf; Shiraz, Iran; Babylon in ancient Mesopotamia; Salonika, Greece; and more. Along the way, Zazu has several kinds of encounters: learning Sephardic/Mizrahi history (such as that of the Caribbean-based Sephardic pirates who took revenge against the Spanish for the forced diaspora of Jews and Moors); meeting ancestors and cultural heroes (like pirate Capt. Moses Cohen Henriques Eanes and Jacques Cousteau); gleaning something about each stop’s culture and background; and, crucially, discovering facets of the global environmental crisis, including burning forests, mass extinctions, and plastic in the oceans. Just as important, Zazu is educated about remedies based on sustainability and an empathic understanding of how human actions affect the biosphere. To save Earth, people need (for example) “zero-deforestation agriculture and product chains, ethically shared seeds,” and “proper poop-use.” The last becomes an important symbol for how humans deal with waste. Zazu is given three poops: one kind warning of the dystopia to come; another serving as a guide to the present; and the third representing “poop for a hopeful future.” Though on the surface a children’s story, with a boy protagonist and fantastic exploits, this novel pitches much of its content to adult ears, backed up by an introductory guide, hundreds of notes, a chronology, and a list of additional resources for further study. The intent is frankly didactic; Alhadeff (Viscous Expectations, 2014) hopes that both kids and adults will see “the possibility of reconsidering consequences of one’s habitual daily choices.” Nevertheless, the tone is joyful and hopeful, and Zazu’s travels are often charming, surprising, and fun, especially when he gets to sample local pastimes and typical foods. The author is effective in showing the breadth, depth, and appeal of Jewish and Arab history, language, and culture. Amato (Uncanny Congruencies, 2013, etc.) provides attractive painted illustrations that have a naïve style but capture the book’s wide-ranging flavor. Given the tale’s enjoyable plot, delight in language, and timely message, it’s unfortunate that its credibility suffers from several questionable assertions (such as the danger of vaccines and the increase of amber’s “healing properties” due to deforestation) and some notes that contain unattributed quotations from other sources.
A mystical, magical adventure with a serious message that should spur conversations.Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-63233-118-2
Page Count: 140
Publisher: Eifrig Publishing
Review Posted Online: Aug. 27, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by Nora Roberts ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 13, 1995
Thoroughbreds and Virginia blue-bloods cavort, commit murder, and fall in love in Roberts's (Hidden Riches, 1994, etc.) latest romantic thriller — this one set in the world of championship horse racing. Rich, sheltered Kelsey Byden is recovering from a recent divorce when she receives a letter from her mother, Naomi, a woman she has believed dead for over 20 years. When Kelsey confronts her genteel English professor father, though, he sheepishly confesses that, no, her mother isn't dead; throughout Kelsey's childhood, she was doing time for the murder of her lover. Kelsey meets with Naomi and not only finds her quite charming, but the owner of Three Willows, one of the most splendid horse farms in Virginia. Kelsey is further intrigued when she meets Gabe Slater, a blue-eyed gambling man who owns a neighboring horse farm; when one of Gabe's horses is mated with Naomi's, nostrils flare, flanks quiver, and the romance is on. Since both Naomi and Gabe have horses entered in the Kentucky Derby, Kelsey is soon swept into the whirlwind of the Triple Crown, in spite of her family's objections to her reconciliation with the notorious Naomi. The rivalry between the two horse farms remains friendly, but other competitors — one of them is Gabe's father, a vicious alcoholic who resents his son's success — prove less scrupulous. Bodies, horse and human, start piling up, just as Kelsey decides to investigate the murky details of her mother's crime. Is it possible she was framed? The ground is thick with no-goods, including haughty patricians, disgruntled grooms, and jockeys with tragic pasts, but despite all the distractions, the identity of the true culprit behind the mayhem — past and present — remains fairly obvious. The plot lopes rather than races to the finish. Gambling metaphors abound, and sexual doings have a distinctly equine tone. But Roberts's style has a fresh, contemporary snap that gets the story past its own worst excesses.
Pub Date: June 13, 1995
ISBN: 0-399-14059-X
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 1995
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by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 31, 2012
Less bleak than the subject matter might warrant—Hannah’s default outlook is sunny—but still, a wrenching depiction of war’s...
The traumatic homecoming of a wounded warrior.
The daughter of alcoholics who left her orphaned at 17, Jolene “Jo” Zarkades found her first stable family in the military: She’s served over two decades, first in the army, later with the National Guard. A helicopter pilot stationed near Seattle, Jo copes as competently at home, raising two daughters, Betsy and Lulu, while trying to dismiss her husband Michael’s increasing emotional distance. Jo’s mettle is sorely tested when Michael informs her flatly that he no longer loves her. Four-year-old Lulu clamors for attention while preteen Betsy, mean-girl-in-training, dismisses as dweeby her former best friend, Seth, son of Jo’s confidante and fellow pilot, Tami. Amid these challenges comes the ultimate one: Jo and Tami are deployed to Iraq. Michael, with the help of his mother, has to take over the household duties, and he rapidly learns that parenting is much harder than his wife made it look. As Michael prepares to defend a PTSD-afflicted veteran charged with Murder I for killing his wife during a dissociative blackout, he begins to understand what Jolene is facing and to revisit his true feelings for her. When her helicopter is shot down under insurgent fire, Jo rescues Tami from the wreck, but a young crewman is killed. Tami remains in a coma and Jo, whose leg has been amputated, returns home to a difficult rehabilitation on several fronts. Her nightmares in which she relives the crash and other horrors she witnessed, and her pain, have turned Jo into a person her daughters now fear (which in the case of bratty Betsy may not be such a bad thing). Jo can't forgive Michael for his rash words. Worse, she is beginning to remind Michael more and more of his homicide client. Characterization can be cursory: Michael’s earlier callousness, left largely unexplained, undercuts the pathos of his later change of heart.
Less bleak than the subject matter might warrant—Hannah’s default outlook is sunny—but still, a wrenching depiction of war’s aftermath.Pub Date: Jan. 31, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-312-57720-9
Page Count: 400
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Dec. 18, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2012
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