A promising plot that plays Indian; readers looking for #ownvoices should paddle their pumpkins on.
A 12-year-old girl hopes to turn last year’s pumpkin-boat–race loss into a win, but revenge might ruin a friendship forever.
Billie and Sam’s friendship ended last summer when Sam beat her in Madeline Island’s annual pumpkin race. According to Billie, Sam cheated, and this summer he’ll pay. From pumpkin planting to race-day harvest, Billie’s bitterness grows. First she refuses to accept his help, then she ignores him completely. Billie’s grandmother admonishes her for this shameful behavior, but it takes a more serious event to lift Billie to forgiveness. The plot offers an appealing premise, and the story’s division into four summer-month sections makes for a quick read. Unfortunately, the cultural milieu comes across as unrooted. Billie’s “half Ojibwe from [her] mom’s side” with “red hair and green eyes” from her father’s Irish side, which is completely believable, and some Ojibwe words (italicized) and cultural touches are included. However, such phrases as “running wild” and “wild dancing” read as woefully unaware, and attempts at cultural scenes either surface skim in a manner reminiscent of diversity box-checking or are described through a naïve awe that reads as a white gaze. Additionally, attributing the Blackfoot word “Sinopa” as an Ojibwe name and incorrectly writing that “nitsidigo’i” is an Ojibwe word for “kneeldown bread” when both the word and the bread are Diné (a culturally and linguistically unrelated people 1,600-plus miles away) amplify readers’ sense of the author’s unfamiliarity with Native peoples.
A promising plot that plays Indian; readers looking for #ownvoices should paddle their pumpkins on. (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: May 21, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5247-6733-4
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Wendy Lamb/Random
Review Posted Online: March 16, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2019
A swamp full of secrets and a quirky cast of characters combine for a delightfully dark debut.
When Neve’s older sister, Rose, is kidnapped by a swamp witch, she must learn to listen to her own instincts or risk losing her sister forever.
Though they aren’t twins—Rose is 11 months older—seventh grade sisters Rose and Neve are rarely apart. Headstrong, outgoing Rose has always been in charge of everything, which has been fine with creative, introverted Neve. Soon after their parents separate and the girls move with their mom to a creepy old house in Etters, South Carolina, a strange fog emerges from the woods and disappears with Rose, leaving Neve to figure out what happened and how to save her sister. Most of the adults around her are emotionally absent and, frankly, rather useless. Although there are a few loose ends and unanswered questions, this goosebump-inducing, Brothers Grimm–inspired contemporary fairy tale deftly illustrates how a younger sibling begins to outgrow both an older one’s shadow and the expectations of their parents as she pursues her own sense of self and takes the initiative in a daring rescue mission. Main characters read as White; alluding to the source material, “Snow-White and Rose-Red,” one sister has white-blond hair and the other’s is auburn. Names and physical descriptions cue some diversity in the supporting cast.
A swamp full of secrets and a quirky cast of characters combine for a delightfully dark debut. (Fantasy. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 13, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-358-67455-9
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Clarion/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: June 21, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
A fizzy mix of low humor and brisk action, with promise of more of both to come.
Heroic deeds await Isaac after his little sister runs into the school basement and is captured by elves.
Even though their school is a spooky old castle transplanted stone by stone from Germany, Isaac and his two friends, Max and Emma, little suspect that an entire magical kingdom lies beneath—a kingdom run by elves, policed by oversized rats in uniform, and populated by captives who start out human but undergo transformative “weirding.” These revelations await Isaac and sidekicks as they nerve themselves to trail his bossy younger sib, Lily, through a shadowy storeroom and into a tunnel, across a wide lake, and into a city lit by half-human fireflies, where they are cast together into a dungeon. Can they escape before they themselves start changing? Gibson pits his doughty rescuers against such adversaries as an elven monarch who emits truly kingly belches and a once-human jailer with a self-picking nose. Tests of mettle range from a riddle contest to a face-off with the menacing head rat Shelfliver, and a helter-skelter chase finally leads rescuers and rescued back to the aboveground. Plainly, though, there is further rescuing to be done.
A fizzy mix of low humor and brisk action, with promise of more of both to come. (Fantasy. 9-11)Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-62370-255-7
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Capstone Young Readers
Review Posted Online: June 28, 2015
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
