Readers will cheer for Martin and Rufus in this funny twist on a boy-and-his-dog story.
A frozen egg holds a surprising pet for a lonely boy.
Friendless, a bully target, and a disappointment to his football-crazy father, 11-year-old Martin is also a budding naturalist, exploring the woods around his Menominee Springs, Wisconsin, home and collecting specimens in the old barn that serves as his lab. When he falls into a prohibited, rockslide area, he finds an unusual frozen egg. It soon thaws and hatches what Martin at first thinks is a deformed small lizard but quickly grows into an enormous, ever hungry T. Rex he names Rufus. Although Rufus imprints strongly on Martin and is surprisingly obedient, feeding him and hiding him become more and more difficult, even with the help of Audrey, a new girl in school and Martin’s first real friend. When Rufus is discovered, madcap mayhem ensues. It’s all related in a matter-of-fact third-person that will help readers suspend their disbelief and keep them chuckling. As improbable as it is humorous, Fulk’s debut novel is a poignant story of a boy’s coming into his own. A list of silly dinosaur “facts” is appended.
Readers will cheer for Martin and Rufus in this funny twist on a boy-and-his-dog story. (Fantasy. 9-12)Pub Date: June 9, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-385-74464-5
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: March 16, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2015
Despite flaws, this is a book worth reading simply for its originality
A fantasy based in Caribbean folklore.
Corinne La Mer is a brave 11-year-old growing up on a Caribbean island. On All Hallow’s Eve, when a pair of troublemaking brothers tie her deceased mother’s prized necklace to a wild animal, Corinne chases the animal into the forest to retrieve it. However, this is no ordinary forest: It’s known for being the abode of “jumbies,” creatures “hidden in the shadows, always waiting for their moment to attack.” Though Corinne doesn’t believe in them, a jumbie follows her out of the forest. The third-person narration tells the back story—in bits and pieces—of this jumbie, who reveals herself to be Corinne’s mother’s sister. It’s never satisfactorily explained why Severine (as Corinne’s jumbie aunt calls herself) seeks out her niece, nearly a decade after her sister’s death. In order to fight Severine—who, sympathetically, only wants a family but is bent on turning humans to jumbies to get one—Corinne must rely not only on her own strength, but that of newfound friends. The novel is based on a Haitian folk tale, according to the author’s note, and it’s refreshing to see a fantasy with its roots outside Europe. Baptiste never quite manages to control the story’s pacing, though, and certain elements in the ending feel arbitrary.
Despite flaws, this is a book worth reading simply for its originality . (Fantasy. 9-12)Pub Date: April 28, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-61620-414-3
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Algonquin
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2015
Words and art combine to create a moving story.
Imagination and drawing help two grieving children in this illustrated novel by the creator of the popular Timmy Failure series and the comic strip “Pearls Before Swine.”
Things are not looking up for Saint (“I wasn’t named for a bearded guy in heaven. I was named for a football team in Louisiana”). Her favorite toy store is demolished, and her beloved diner closes. It’s all part of the gentrification for which she holds her single mother, who works long hours as a real estate agent and frequently breaks her promises, responsible. Saint very much likes reticent neighbor Daniel “Chance” McGibbons, who uses a cane, but first she has to win his friendship after an awkward beginning at his birthday party. When the uncle Chance lives with sells to developers, Saint’s determination to save his home penetrates Chance’s reserve. The kids’ subsequent shenanigans will delight readers. The story is generously illustrated with Pastis’ characteristic black-and-white cartoon line drawings, mostly of the two round-headed kids, whose hair and skin are as white as the page. Longtime neighborhood resident Old Lady Trifaldi helps Saint learn to cope with change by looking at the stars from her roof, “to make time go backward.” Pastis fills this deceptively simple first-person account with humor, puns, turns, and twists—and the final twist gives this friendship tale its surprising depth.
Words and art combine to create a moving story. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Oct. 10, 2023
ISBN: 9781665929622
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2023
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