A bittersweet ending completes the story’s magic and mystery.
An orphan girl discovers her true identity with the help of a ghost, an elephant, and the wind.
Seven years ago, an approximately 5-year-old white girl was found by an employee in the Omaha zoo’s elephant habitat following a tornado. After efforts to locate her family led nowhere, the zoo employee, a white man named Roger, called the girl Lexington after the zoo and became her guardian. Rimington sets this poignant novel when Lex and Roger figure she is 12. Refusing to go to public school, Lex remains mostly isolated at the zoo, much like her favorite character, Karana, from Scott O’Dell’s Island of the Blue Dolphins (1960). Readers familiar with this Newbery winner will notice many interesting parallels between the orphaned girls. Lex’s day-to-day activities consist of her routine with Roger; hanging out with best friend and fellow zoo resident Fisher, a boy with mixed Thai and white heritage; communing with Nyah, the elephant who saved her the night of the tornado; and listening to the wind. These latter fantastical elements come into the fore when Lexington begins seeing Miss Amanda, the “misplaced spirit” (please, don’t call her “ghost”) of a Southern white woman who has lost some treasure. Soon, an already engaging tale of life at a zoo turns into a mystery, with Lex and Fisher’s efforts not only to locate Miss Amanda’s treasure, but also to recover Lex’s identity in the process. The book adheres to the white default.
A bittersweet ending completes the story’s magic and mystery. (author’s note) (Fantasy. 8-12)Pub Date: May 19, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-12122-1
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 17, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Hugely entertaining, timely, and triumphant.
Robot Roz undertakes an unusual ocean journey to save her adopted island home in this third series entry.
When a poison tide flowing across the ocean threatens their island, Roz works with the resident creatures to ensure that they will have clean water, but the destruction of vegetation and crowding of habitats jeopardize everyone’s survival. Brown’s tale of environmental depredation and turmoil is by turns poignant, graceful, endearing, and inspiring, with his (mostly) gentle robot protagonist at its heart. Though Roz is different from the creatures she lives with or encounters—including her son, Brightbill the goose, and his new mate, Glimmerwing—she makes connections through her versatile communication abilities and her desire to understand and help others. When Roz accidentally discovers that the replacement body given to her by Dr. Molovo is waterproof, she sets out to seek help and discovers the human-engineered source of the toxic tide. Brown’s rich descriptions of undersea landscapes, entertaining conversations between Roz and wild creatures, and concise yet powerful explanations of the effect of the poison tide on the ecology of the island are superb. Simple, spare illustrations offer just enough glimpses of Roz and her surroundings to spark the imagination. The climactic confrontation pits oceangoing mammals, seabirds, fish, and even zooplankton against hardware and technology in a nicely choreographed battle. But it is Roz’s heroism and peacemaking that save the day.
Hugely entertaining, timely, and triumphant. (author’s note) (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2023
ISBN: 9780316669412
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Affecting and hopeful.
A stray dog finds her destiny amid the chaos of a Southern California wildfire.
Wombat is a small dog with stubby legs and “silly ears / that look like furry cookies”—almost impossibly cute in Bricking’s occasional pencil-style vignettes. She’s mastered the art of survival, so when a mysterious internal voice prods her to go toward the fire, she resists. “The wrong way is the right way. / The right way is the wrong way,” the voice insists. When she tells fellow stray Silas about it, he tells Wombat she’s a “destiny dog,” bound to “find their person / before their person / can find them.” Convinced, she decides to follow the mysterious instructions. Meanwhile, Henry, a boy who’s leery of dogs, loves the bats at the wildlife rehabilitation center where Mama Ro, a veterinarian, works; his Mama J is a librarian. Henry and Barnabas, a fruit bat at the center, are both uprooted by the fire, and their paths converge with Wombat’s at an emergency shelter. The third-person perspective shifts from character to character in clusters of free-verse poems that fully immerse readers in each one’s experiences in turn. This extra-concentrated delivery of Applegate’s typically spare writing proves effective, balancing terror and sadness with heart and humor. Henry has light brown skin, Mama Ro has curly black hair and brown skin, and Mama J presents white.
Affecting and hopeful. (Verse fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: May 5, 2026
ISBN: 9780063221178
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Storytide/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: March 9, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2026
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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