An engaging young hero leads this inventive, intelligently mounted fantasy.
A 10-year-old girl’s belief that magic is real receives a ghostly confirmation in Black’s middle-grade fantasy novel.
After a move to a small California coastal town of Edna for her mother’s new job, fourth-grader Sara says her life is “crummy…with a capital C.” She has no friends at school, and worse, two girl bullies target her for ridicule and torment after they learn of her belief in magic. It doesn’t help that Sara’s mom, stepdad, and older brother have all happily adjusted to their new surroundings. At least Sara has a road trip with Mom to visit to her Gramsy’s farm to look forward to. On the lookout for magic along the way, Sara almost gives up, until they stop for an overnight stay at the old, rustic (and real-life) Deetjen’s Inn in the Big Sur redwood forest. Sara hears sounds in her room’s dark closet and discovers the magic she sought: a collection of ghostly clothing talking about their histories, led by Silas, a Civil War Union Army jacket. In this promising middle-grade novel debut, the author gives a fascinating, original supernatural twist to historical facts, adding real-world substance with coastal travel highlights, a grade-schooler’s relatable issues, and a touch of romance and mystery from the distant past. Framing educational content as conversational stories told by shoes, shirts, jackets, jeans, hats, and dresses—each with a colorful, individual personality—the author brings history to life. The book disappoints only in its treatment of bullying: When Sara finally reveals what her bullies have done (including a inflicting a slight physical injury, the destruction of property, and taunting), her mom unhelpfully asks what she plans to do about it and suggests she try to understand her bullies: “Sometimes it helps everybody involved if you can put yourself in the other person’s shoes.” Following the story’s suspenseful conclusion, Black gives readers some bonus material: a teaser for the next book in the series, more facts about the real places and people in the story, and some hands-on activities, including a recipe for fortune cookies.
An engaging young hero leads this inventive, intelligently mounted fantasy.Pub Date: Jan. 30, 2023
ISBN: 9780989523424
Page Count: 237
Publisher: Coalesce Press
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
However the compelling fitness of theme and event and the apt but unexpected imagery (the opening sentences compare the...
At a time when death has become an acceptable, even voguish subject in children's fiction, Natalie Babbitt comes through with a stylistic gem about living forever.
Protected Winnie, the ten-year-old heroine, is not immortal, but when she comes upon young Jesse Tuck drinking from a secret spring in her parents' woods, she finds herself involved with a family who, having innocently drunk the same water some 87 years earlier, haven't aged a moment since. Though the mood is delicate, there is no lack of action, with the Tucks (previously suspected of witchcraft) now pursued for kidnapping Winnie; Mae Tuck, the middle aged mother, striking and killing a stranger who is onto their secret and would sell the water; and Winnie taking Mae's place in prison so that the Tucks can get away before she is hanged from the neck until....? Though Babbitt makes the family a sad one, most of their reasons for discontent are circumstantial and there isn't a great deal of wisdom to be gleaned from their fate or Winnie's decision not to share it.
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1975
ISBN: 0312369816
Page Count: 164
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: April 13, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1975
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