John Muir’s spirit hums along under a well-developed plot with likable characters.
Zookeepers’ daughter Lizzie has a memorable summer before seventh grade, as she befriends an intriguing boy, emulates John Muir, and investigates the mystery of suddenly sickened wolves at the John Muir Wildlife Park in Lodisto, California.
As the author’s note confirms, characters and setting are fictional, but much of the material in the text—including fascinating information about wildlife, John Muir, some spunky 19th-century women, and Yosemite National Park—is factual and well-integrated into the story. Lizzie and her father, Mike, both white, live literally on zoo grounds, in a house that includes a guest apartment. African-American Tyler has run away from his foster home and has been living outdoors, behind the elephant house. Lizzie secretly hides him in the guest apartment right around the time that the first wolf of the seven at the new Wolf Woods exhibit sickens and dies. Lizzie feels stricken when her favorite wolf, Lobo, apparently suffers the same fate. Or does he? Despite the fast pace of Lizzie and Tyler’s adventure—which climaxes in a harrowing 48 hours alone together at Yosemite—the text includes plenty of philosophical questions about animal rights and about relationships of all kinds. Tyler’s wry comments about his race add further dimensions to a thoughtful, well-told tale, as do the pencil drawings.
John Muir’s spirit hums along under a well-developed plot with likable characters. (Adventure. 8-12)Pub Date: Oct. 11, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-8050-9899-0
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Christy Ottaviano/Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: June 27, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2016
Readers new to Gooseberry Park will hope they don’t have to wait another 20 years for the next book
Twenty years after the publication of Gooseberry Park (1995), Rylant returns with a sequel.
In the previous outing, the residents of Gooseberry Park coped with an ice storm; now, a drought threatens Stumpy the squirrel and her family, along with all the other animals. This spurs house pets chocolate Lab Kona and hermit crab Gwendolyn to devise the titular master plan to help their friends through the ecological disaster. Herman the crow—so smart that the rest of the crows have given up the annual chess match because they got sick of losing to him—works out a flowchart that involves a cat, a possum, a raccoon, 200 owls, and 20 packs of chewing gum. Murray the bat’s motivational-speaker brother puts his well-developed jaw muscles to work on the gum; Kona’s chocolate-Lab sincerity wins the unprecedented cooperation of 200 owls. Rylant writes with her customary restrained humor, creating with apparently no effort a full cast of three-dimensional furred and feathered characters. The story comes with lessons ranging from the overuse of fossil fuels to the peculiar magic of friendship, all applied with a gentle hand and a spirit of generous trust in the abilities of her readers to understand them. Her frequent collaborator Howard supplies lumpily humorous grayscale illustrations that augment the character development and give readers’ eyes places to rest.
Readers new to Gooseberry Park will hope they don’t have to wait another 20 years for the next book . (Fantasy. 8-12)Pub Date: April 21, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4814-0449-5
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Beach Lane/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: March 2, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2015
A deceptively simple, tender tale in which respect, resilience, and hope triumph.
Generations of human and animal families grow and change, seen from the point of view of the red oak Wishing Tree that shelters them all.
Most trees are introverts at heart. So says Red, who is over 200 years old and should know. Not to mention that they have complicated relationships with humans. But this tree also has perspective on its animal friends and people who live within its purview—not just witnessing, but ultimately telling the tales of young people coming to this country alone or with family. An Irish woman named Maeve is the first, and a young 10-year-old Muslim girl named Samar is the most recent. Red becomes the repository for generations of wishes; this includes both observing Samar’s longing wish and sporting the hurtful word that another young person carves into their bark as a protest to Samar’s family’s presence. (Red is monoecious, they explain, with both male and female flowers.) Newbery medalist Applegate succeeds at interweaving an immigrant story with an animated natural world and having it all make sense. As Red observes, animals compete for resources just as humans do, and nature is not always pretty or fair or kind. This swiftly moving yet contemplative read is great for early middle grade, reluctant or tentative readers, or precocious younger students.
A deceptively simple, tender tale in which respect, resilience, and hope triumph. (Fantasy. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-250-04322-1
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: Aug. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2017
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