Love (A Year Without Rain, 2000, etc.), as love often does, offers magic, high spirits, and adventure. When her story opens, Mouse is a scullery maid who is like the puppets she comes to know: “waiting in the dark of their trunk for something wondrous to happen.” Though advised to find a safe life “with a family of flesh and blood instead of wood and wool,” Mouse knows that she and the puppet master she befriends are meant to travel together, and she learns that the magic of the puppets is only transcended by the happiness they bring to others. Learning the art of puppetry but losing the puppeteer, Mouse must pursue her calling and find her true name alone. Later, she marvels that “a girl born with nothing at all, not even a name, could by sharp wits and hard work make a place in the world.” Colorful, lively, rhythmic language and a strong sense of medieval England make this a great read-aloud, a tale full of magic, deadly swordfights with thieves, and one young girl’s finding the courage to pursue her dream. The pace never falters, the characterizations are strong, and readers young and old will feel a bit more emboldened to meet the road as it rises up to meet them. A must-read in the grand storytelling tradition of Lloyd Alexander and Karen Cushman. (author’s note, bibliography) (Fiction. 8-12)
Pub Date: April 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-689-84424-7
Page Count: 192
Publisher: McElderry
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2003
Readers will cheer the birth of this comedian.
Eleven-year-old Yumi Chung doesn’t have anyone to sit with at lunch, but she secretly harbors dreams of becoming a comedian. Shy + Asian + Girl = Comedian? Why, yes. Yes, it does.
Winston Preparatory Academy is a shy person’s nightmare. Yumi hides from the beautiful girls and the bullies who call her “Yu-meat” because she smells like her parents’ Korean barbecue restaurant. This summer, her parents are demanding that she go to Korean summer school, or hagwon, to get a near-perfect score on the high school entrance exam—because that is the only way to attend an elite college, like her superachiever sister, a 20-year-old med student. Yumi collects all of her fears and frustrations (and jokes) in her Super-Secret Comedy Notebook. When a case of mistaken identity allows her to attend a comedy camp taught by her YouTube idol, Yumi is too panicked to correct the problem—and then it spirals out of control. With wonderful supporting characters, strong pacing, and entertaining comedy bits, debut author Kim has woven a pop song of immigrant struggle colliding with comedy and Korean barbecue. With their feet in two different cultures, readers listen in on honest conversations, full of halting English and unspoken truths painting a realistic picture of 21st-century first-generation Americans—at least a Korean version. By becoming someone else, Yumi learns more about herself and her family in an authentic and hilarious way.
Readers will cheer the birth of this comedian. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: March 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-525-55497-4
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Kokila
Review Posted Online: Nov. 23, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
PERSPECTIVES
A captivating adventure about the strength of love and family.
A Nigerian city girl visits her estranged grandmother in a remote village and is confronted with family secrets.
Thirteen-year-old Simi has only known Lagos—until her mother needs to go to London for work. Her parents are divorced, and Simi can’t stay with her perpetually busy father, so she is reluctantly shipped off to spend her summer vacation with her maternal grandmother in Ajao, a remote village with no modern technology. Soon after her exhausting journey by bus and taxi, Simi goes for a walk and is drawn to go the wrong way—into the forest and toward a forbidden lake, where she is briefly transported to a different world, something she at first believes is a dream. Although her staunchly Christian mother does not want her exposed to the Yoruba gods and goddesses her grandmother follows, Simi later learns a story that is connected to her family about Oshun, the river and water goddess. As more children are lured toward the lake, Simi feels compelled to come forward and risk everything to heal the wounds in her family and help the village that has come to feel like home. Traoré’s debut is brimming with earnest, admiring details about Yoruba culture and traditions that are woven into the worldbuilding. As Simi’s fast-paced adventure unfolds, readers will be swept away by the limited omniscient narration in this plot-driven story with a strong sense of place.
A captivating adventure about the strength of love and family. (author's note, glossary) (Fantasy. 8-12)Pub Date: July 26, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-338-78192-2
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Chicken House/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: April 26, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2022
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