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
A story in which themes and historical information outshine the character development.
An orphan leaves her oppressive orphanage’s squalor and struggles to keep her place at a girls’ school in 1904 London.
Lainey Philipps’ intellectual curiosity, born from her voracious reading habits, garners the attention of Lady Anne Blunt, who offers her a place at Lovelace Academy. Lainey, whose mother was Jewish, loves the academics but is ostracized and belittled by her posh classmates. After her roommate’s lies threaten her enrollment, Lainey learns of the Lovelace Society, a secret group that supports women scientists. The members have a file on scientist Mileva Einstein (co-author Benedict also wrote 2016’s The Other Einstein). Lainey believes that if she can help Mileva with her research, she won’t be expelled. With resources borrowed from a friend, she makes her way across Europe to the Einsteins’ residence in Switzerland. Unexpected obstacles provide conflict during her journey as she encounters classism and the consequences of mistaken impressions; side characters in this story arc display more nuance. Occasionally, the authors toss out heavy-handed moral messages and canned platitudes that clash with the bleaker look at conditions at the time for orphans, women, and other minorities (such as Lainey’s friend with dyslexia and a character who’s from an unspecified nomadic people). Refreshingly, the text doesn’t elevate cerebral pursuits over caretaking in its message of equality—emotional bonds and shared support are shown to aid in academic advancement—but, disappointingly, the secret-society plot fizzles out.
A story in which themes and historical information outshine the character development. (Historical fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: April 22, 2025
ISBN: 9781665950213
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
A promising, lighthearted beginning.
When the Swampy Woods home of seven siblings is utterly destroyed, the children move to House Number Seven in Lost Cove—and neighbor Desdemona O’pinion tries her hardest to malign, evict, and separate the children.
Both text and illustrations offer a nod to Roald Dahl’s quirky, juvenile heroes and equally quirky, nasty villains. The distinctive flavor comes both from Lloyd’s witty but succinct word mastery and from her unflagging imagination. Each of the titular children was born on a different day of the week, with a name and a personality or appearance that—arguably—parallels the old nursery rhyme “Monday’s child is fair of face.” Here Monday’s child is the lovely but subversive Mona. Tuesday’s child baby Toot’s “grace” is apparently his ability to communicate with highly specialized farts, while Thea—Thursday’s child—moves slowly toward self-confidence during the generally madcap adventure. The story begins with the children gratefully unscathed after their home suddenly blows up and continues with their move to town, where their combined warmth, cooperation, and ingenuity enable them to charm everyone but evil Desdemona. There are ongoing, mysterious discoveries before it concludes with a temporary reprieve on eviction—but plenty of aperture for the next adventure in the series. The family is white; secondary characters include one blind girl and another who is “allergic to air” as well as neighbors of varied ethnicities. Among other novelties, readers will meet circus spiders and revel in “heartspeak.”
A promising, lighthearted beginning. (Fantasy. 8-12)Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-06-242820-2
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Oct. 15, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2017
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