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A FAIRY'S COURAGE

Name: A FAIRY'S COURAGE
Author: E.J. Clarke
ISBN: 978-1-4814-8194-6

From the Oakwing series , Vol. 2

by E.J. Clarke ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 15, 2018

More nail-biting adventures involving fairy friends and foes in this second rousing Oakwing tale.

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In this sequel to series opener A Fairy’s Tale (2017), Rowan returns to the Fairy Realms in London’s Royal Parks hoping both to reunite her family and to protect the fairies.

Back home in human form, Rowan tells her incredulous father and younger sister how she transformed into a fairy beneath a weeping beach in Hyde Park and found her missing mother, who’s now also a fairy. Determined to rescue her mother, Rowan returns to Hyde Park. Here she learns that Vulpes, an evil fairy who is intent on becoming human, has kidnapped Rowan’s mother to learn how Rowan resumed human form. He’s also destroying weeping beeches to prevent Rowan from becoming a fairy again. With her mother and the fairies in grave danger, Rowan transforms into fairy form, unsure if she will be able to transform back. With her fairy pals, she boldly borrows animals from London Zoo, hijacks a canal boat, disrupts a fish market, and traverses the Thames in a cable car only to encounter bitter betrayal. Facing defeat, Rowan discovers the transformative power of forgiveness to once again emerge a formidable heroine in both human and fairy forms. Clarke’s worldbuilding is complex enough, despite the straightforward adventure and quick pace, that readers should begin the series with Book 1. The book adheres to the white default.

More nail-biting adventures involving fairy friends and foes in this second rousing Oakwing tale. (Fantasy. 7-11)

Pub Date: May 15, 2018

ISBN: 978-1-4814-8194-6

Page Count: 208

Publisher: Aladdin

Review Posted Online: March 3, 2018

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2018

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

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LITTLE DAYMOND LEARNS TO EARN

by Daymond John ; illustrated by Nicole Miles ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 21, 2023

It’s hard to argue with success, but guides that actually do the math will be more useful to budding capitalists.

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How to raise money for a coveted poster: put your friends to work!

John, founder of the FUBU fashion line and a Shark Tank venture capitalist, offers a self-referential blueprint for financial success. Having only half of the $10 he needs for a Minka J poster, Daymond forks over $1 to buy a plain T-shirt, paints a picture of the pop star on it, sells it for $5, and uses all of his cash to buy nine more shirts. Then he recruits three friends to decorate them with his design and help sell them for an unspecified amount (from a conveniently free and empty street-fair booth) until they’re gone. The enterprising entrepreneur reimburses himself for the shirts and splits the remaining proceeds, which leaves him with enough for that poster as well as a “brand-new business book,” while his friends express other fiscal strategies: saving their share, spending it all on new art supplies, or donating part and buying a (math) book with the rest. (In a closing summation, the author also suggests investing in stocks, bonds, or cryptocurrency.) Though Miles cranks up the visual energy in her sparsely detailed illustrations by incorporating bright colors and lots of greenbacks, the actual advice feels a bit vague. Daymond is Black; most of the cast are people of color. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

It’s hard to argue with success, but guides that actually do the math will be more useful to budding capitalists. (Picture book. 7-9)

Pub Date: March 21, 2023

ISBN: 978-0-593-56727-2

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Random House

Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2022

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2023

Categories:

CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

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TUCK EVERLASTING

by Natalie Babbitt ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 1, 1975

However the compelling fitness of theme and event and the apt but unexpected imagery (the opening sentences compare the...

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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.

However the compelling fitness of theme and event and the apt but unexpected imagery (the opening sentences compare the first week in August when this takes place to "the highest seat of a Ferris wheel when it pauses in its turning") help to justify the extravagant early assertion that had the secret about to be revealed been known at the time of the action, the very earth "would have trembled on its axis like a beetle on a pin." (Fantasy. 9-11)