A valiant effort to make American history fun using elements of fantasy.
Two time-traveling children visit 18th-century Massachusetts in Glover’s middle-grade historical novel.
June 25th, 2024 begins as a normal day. On the first day of summer vacation, 11-year-old Heath and 9-year-old Hadden are forbidden to go to the lake by themselves, but they slip out of their house to go angling anyway. Walking through unfamiliar woods, they discover a cave with a beautiful gemstone inside. When the quarrelsome brothers wrestle for possession of the stone, they strike the cave wall and are transported to an alternate reality where horse-drawn carriages trundle down the roads and children are clad in knickers and buckled shoes. A boy named Johnny relays the information that it is July 2nd, 1776, and that they are in Braintree, Massachusetts—not New Jersey, where the boys live. Johnny brings them home to meet his mother, Mrs. Adams. Heath and Hadden are surprised to discover that bathrooms, called privies, don’t have flushing toilets and that people once churned butter; the Adams family is horrified to learn that two world wars will take place. Heath realizes that on July 2nd, 1776, the American colonies won freedom from Britain. Despite their affection for the Adams family, Heath and Hadden still hope Mrs. Hawk, an exceptionally wise and understanding older woman, can help them return to their own era. Glover tries to instill a sense of pride regarding America’s forward progression: The Adamses are amazed that slavery ended and that there’s currently a female vice president, and they become emotional when the boys sing patriotic songs. Though Heath and Hadden bicker in a realistically childlike way, they can sometimes sound as if they’re reading from a Wikipedia page. Heath informs his new friends that “The flag went through twenty-seven changes through the years,” while Hadden explains that “The eagle symbolizes patriotism and unity during times of war.” The expressions the boys use often sound anachronistic for 2024 (“dipsy doodle,” “Holy fudge muffins,” “Mr. Smarty Pants”). The elements of magic and historical information don’t always smoothly coalesce, but the author’s love of history is apparent, and the importance of family and friends also resonates.
A valiant effort to make American history fun using elements of fantasy.Pub Date: Dec. 26, 2024
ISBN: 9781966227007
Page Count: 280
Publisher: Pages of Imagination
Review Posted Online: Feb. 18, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
PERSPECTIVES
Is this the end? Well, no…the series will stagger on through at least one more scheduled sequel.
Sure signs that the creative wells are running dry at last, the Captain’s ninth, overstuffed outing both recycles a villain (see Book 4) and offers trendy anti-bullying wish fulfillment.
Not that there aren’t pranks and envelope-pushing quips aplenty. To start, in an alternate ending to the previous episode, Principal Krupp ends up in prison (“…a lot like being a student at Jerome Horwitz Elementary School, except that the prison had better funding”). There, he witnesses fellow inmate Tippy Tinkletrousers (aka Professor Poopypants) escape in a giant Robo-Suit (later reduced to time-traveling trousers). The villain sets off after George and Harold, who are in juvie (“not much different from our old school…except that they have library books here.”). Cut to five years previous, in a prequel to the whole series. George and Harold link up in kindergarten to reduce a quartet of vicious bullies to giggling insanity with a relentless series of pranks involving shaving cream, spiders, effeminate spoof text messages and friendship bracelets. Pilkey tucks both topical jokes and bathroom humor into the cartoon art, and ups the narrative’s lexical ante with terms like “pharmaceuticals” and “theatrical flair.” Unfortunately, the bullies’ sad fates force Krupp to resign, so he’s not around to save the Earth from being destroyed later on by Talking Toilets and other invaders…
Is this the end? Well, no…the series will stagger on through at least one more scheduled sequel. (Fantasy. 10-12)Pub Date: Aug. 28, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-545-17534-0
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: June 19, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2012
An absorbing fantasy centered on a resilient female protagonist facing growth, change, and self-empowerment.
In Florence’s middle-grade fantasy novel, a young girl’s heart is tested in the face of an evil, spreading Darkness.
Eleven-year-old Lydia, “freckle-cheeked and round-eyed, with hair the color of pine bark and fair skin,” is struggling with the knowledge that she has reached the age to apprentice as an herbalist. Lydia is reluctant to leave her beloved, magical Mulberry Glen and her cozy Housetree in the woods—she’ll miss Garder, the Glen’s respected philosopher; her fairy guardian Pit; her human friend Livy; and even the mischievous part-elf, part-imp, part-human twins Zale and Zamilla. But the twins go missing after hearing of a soul-sapping Darkness that has swallowed a forest and is creeping into minds and engulfing entire towns. They have secretly left to find a rare fruit that, it is said, will stop the Darkness if thrown into the heart of the mountain that rises out of the lethal forest. Lydia follows, determined to find the twins before they, too, fall victim to the Darkness. During her journey, accompanied by new friends, she gradually realizes that she herself has a dangerous role to play in the quest to stop the Darkness. In this well-crafted fantasy, Florence skillfully equates the physical manifestation of Darkness with the feelings of insecurity and powerlessness that Lydia first struggles with when thinking of leaving the Glen. Such negative thoughts grow more intrusive the closer she and her friends come to the Darkness—and to Lydia’s ultimate, powerfully rendered test of character, which leads to a satisfyingly realistic, not quite happily-ever-after ending. Highlights include a delightfully haunting, reality-shifting library and a deft sprinkling of Latin throughout the text; Pit’s pet name for Lydia is mea flosculus (“my little flower”). Fine-lined ink drawings introducing each chapter add a pleasing visual element to this well-grounded fairy tale.
An absorbing fantasy centered on a resilient female protagonist facing growth, change, and self-empowerment.Pub Date: Jan. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9781956393095
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Waxwing Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 14, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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