An engaging children’s adventure with an important lesson.
A mermaid must complete an important task before her 12th birthday in Müller’s middle-grade novel.
Swannie lives an idyllic life with her parents in the seaside village of Nammig. Months ago (as depicted in the author’s 2022 novel The Mermaid of Amarvin Island), she learned that she is actually a mermaid, and she had to save the nearby mystical Amarvin Island from an evil serpent. (Swannie’s mother Sarika is also a mermaid; her father Thomas is a fisherman and does not know much about mermaids.) Shortly before her 12th birthday, Swannie learns that mermaids have “Dream-Days,” anniversaries of the first dream a mermaid hasof her unborn child. After receiving a sign, the mermaid must complete the Dream-Day Ceremony, which consists of completing some “Task” to make the world a better place. Carnuckelby, a man made of pebbles, starts her on her Dream-Day journey, which takes her into the skies, under the sea, and back to Amarvin Island to solve a mystery instigated by mechanical stinging insects. Along the way, she enlists the help of her friends from school: Feliciana, who assisted with her last adventure, along with Tall Pete, Tobias, and Stephen. The group acquires another member in Lark, a new girl at school. Throughout her journey, Swannie encounters tasks that she simply cannot complete alone. Though she is initially reluctant to turn to her extensive support network for assistance, not wanting to put them in harm’s way, the ultimate lesson she must learn is to ask for help when she needs it. This lesson is explicitly spelled out for the reader, though the author manages to do so without seeming didactic: “for all great deeds, tasks, duties, and missions, can only be accomplished with the help of others—of working together, unified in single purpose and spirit.” The story includes enough fun and adventure to make its clear moral feel earned, not preachy. The text leaves the children’s races ambiguous, though Lapointe’s black-and-white illustrations depict them with diverse skin tones.
An engaging children’s adventure with an important lesson.Pub Date: Nov. 25, 2024
ISBN: 9798987442951
Page Count: 292
Publisher: Alkion Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
