A fantasy series opener with captivating animal characters and cultures.
Running away from her rat enslavers, an orphaned monkey finds her place in a rabbit village in this debut children’s fantasy.
Young Mysti, a little brown monkey with an orange topknot, can’t remember anything of her life before being taken up as a baby by a gang of thieving, violent, dirty rats and forced to work for the group. Seeing a chance to escape, Mysti endures a long and exhausting journey until reaching the Reanlands, inhabited by rabbits. A she-rabbit named Feona discovers her and, taking pity on Mysti’s sorry state, brings her home. Mysti, never having been treated kindly, is at first wary and secretive, but she eventually settles into helping Feona on the farm and joining in village life, despite some rabbits’ mistrust of her. At the annual Berry Festival, where rabbits gather for trade and fun, Mysti meets the Teg, “a storyteller, a singer, a keeper of history and lore.” He explains the significance of the moonstone necklace she’s always had and how she might have a special destiny with the rabbits. When festivalgoers almost drown in rising floodwaters, Mysti’s ingenuity saves them. Later, Feona goes out on a freezing cold night and Mysti starts looking for her. Helm intends her book as the first of a series, and she certainly whets readers’ appetites for more. Though the rabbits live in a seemingly gentle world of crops, tradecraft, and markets, this is no cozy Beatrix Potter setting but a dangerous realm with a dark underside and complex history. Mysti’s special role, as yet unclear, will also intrigue readers. But the tale ends on an unsatisfying cliffhanger involving a major character, with the outcome unknown. The sprightly monochrome pictures by debut illustrator Edwards nicely convey the players’ endearing personalities.
A fantasy series opener with captivating animal characters and cultures.Pub Date: Feb. 3, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5255-9752-7
Page Count: 192
Publisher: FriesenPress
Review Posted Online: March 18, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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
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