Sensational young heroes take the reins in this delightful environmental tale.
A girl who can talk to animals searches for a way to help endangered butterflies in Mexico in this third installment of Armstrong’s middle-grade series.
Nearly-12-year-old Sydney’s “missions” have aided the environment and many animals. Her latest endeavor, like the previous two, begins cryptically: a monarch butterfly in California simply utters the Spanish word for “south.” Luckily, the timing coincides with the family trip to Mexico, where Sydney’s environmental photographer mother will snap pictures of monarch butterflies that have migrated from Canada and the eastern U.S. So how can Sydney help these vibrant, orange-and-black insects? That’s something she’ll have to work on with the help of her parents and her twin sister, Sierra, who’s a walking, endlessly talking encyclopedia. The monarch butterflies are definitely in trouble; there’s a mysterious drone circling their habitat, and the presence of illegal loggers is likely. Sydney converses with a variety of animals, including the horses she rides, to accomplish her mission. The twins in Armstrong’s novel are, in some ways, typical tweens—they don’t want to be treated like little girls and have perfected the eye-roll. But they have standout qualities, too, like Sierra’s genius-level intelligence and, of course, Sydney’s astonishing ability, which she’s revealed to her sister but not to their parents. This story largely concerns Sydney deciphering what her mission specifically is and then determining how she can best see it through. There are copious educational moments throughout, as Sierra tirelessly imparts bits of her exhaustive knowledge (“Did you know that in Greek mythology Pegasus is a winged horse?”) and Sydney works on honing her passable Spanish. The cast is upbeat and appealing, from such patient, kindhearted locals as guide Alejo to the twins’ mom and dad, who aren’t oblivious to the fact that their daughters have entirely separate interests and personalities. The ending hints at where the next installment might be headed.
Sensational young heroes take the reins in this delightful environmental tale.Pub Date: Sept. 16, 2025
ISBN: 9798218392390
Page Count: 248
Publisher: Climate Kid Adventure Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 12, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic.
Chainani works an elaborate sea change akin to Gregory Maguire’s Wicked (1995), though he leaves the waters muddied.
Every four years, two children, one regarded as particularly nice and the other particularly nasty, are snatched from the village of Gavaldon by the shadowy School Master to attend the divided titular school. Those who survive to graduate become major or minor characters in fairy tales. When it happens to sweet, Disney princess–like Sophie and her friend Agatha, plain of features, sour of disposition and low of self-esteem, they are both horrified to discover that they’ve been dropped not where they expect but at Evil and at Good respectively. Gradually—too gradually, as the author strings out hundreds of pages of Hogwarts-style pranks, classroom mishaps and competitions both academic and romantic—it becomes clear that the placement wasn’t a mistake at all. Growing into their true natures amid revelations and marked physical changes, the two spark escalating rivalry between the wings of the school. This leads up to a vicious climactic fight that sees Good and Evil repeatedly switching sides. At this point, readers are likely to feel suddenly left behind, as, thanks to summary deus ex machina resolutions, everything turns out swell(ish).
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic. (Fantasy. 11-13)Pub Date: May 14, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-06-210489-2
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2013
BOOK TO SCREEN
The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often...
A successful juvenile by the beloved New Yorker writer portrays a farm episode with an imaginative twist that makes a poignant, humorous story of a pig, a spider and a little girl.
Young Fern Arable pleads for the life of runt piglet Wilbur and gets her father to sell him to a neighbor, Mr. Zuckerman. Daily, Fern visits the Zuckermans to sit and muse with Wilbur and with the clever pen spider Charlotte, who befriends him when he is lonely and downcast. At the news of Wilbur's forthcoming slaughter, campaigning Charlotte, to the astonishment of people for miles around, spins words in her web. "Some Pig" comes first. Then "Terrific"—then "Radiant". The last word, when Wilbur is about to win a show prize and Charlotte is about to die from building her egg sac, is "Humble". And as the wonderful Charlotte does die, the sadness is tempered by the promise of more spiders next spring.
The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often informative as amusing, and the whole tenor of appealing wit and pathos will make fine entertainment for reading aloud, too.Pub Date: Oct. 15, 1952
ISBN: 978-0-06-026385-0
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1952
PERSPECTIVES
SEEN & HEARD
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