Heroic exploits, lit by bonds of companionship.
Two clueless if resolute animal familiars have adventures on the wine-dark sea while seeking out their mysteriously vanished witch.
When Penelope goes missing, pompous calico cat Butter (who is convinced that he’s destined for Great Things) and his excitable raven counterpart (who has named herself Owl) set sail aboard the small boat Bright Idea “in and out of weeks and almost over a year” in hopes of rescuing her—or at least catching up with her. Newbery Honor–winning author Bow makes no secret of her main inspiration, the Odyssey, but she slips in quite a few sly nods to other classics, too. Misadventures along the way, including Butter’s being nearly turned into a pig by a certain sorceress and a soggy encounter with sirens in the Dire Strait, lead to even tighter bonds as each repeatedly saves the other’s bacon (so to speak) while passing through seas and skies alike. Terrified as the questers often are, empathetic readers may take to heart a passing otter-god’s reassurance that heroes aren’t invariably big, or strong, or fearless. “What makes them heroes is that they go on.” Like Kate DiCamillo and Kathryn Applegate at their best, Bow displays a knack for giving her characters a winning mix of animal and human qualities; her prose is elegant and inviting, her plotting superb. Final art not seen.
Heroic exploits, lit by bonds of companionship. (Fantasy. 10-13)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2026
ISBN: 9781368114448
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Review Posted Online: July 20, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2026
PERSPECTIVES
Dolphin lovers will appreciate this look at our complicated relationship with these marine mammals.
Is dolphin-assisted therapy so beneficial to patients that it’s worth keeping a wild dolphin captive?
Twelve-year-old Lily has lived with her emotionally distant oncologist stepfather and a succession of nannies since her mother died in a car accident two years ago. Nannies leave because of the difficulty of caring for Adam, Lily’s severely autistic 4-year-old half brother. The newest, Suzanne, seems promising, but Lily is tired of feeling like a planet orbiting the sun Adam. When she meets blind Zoe, who will attend the same private middle school as Lily in the fall, Lily’s happy to have a friend. However, Zoe’s take on the plight of the captive dolphin, Nori, used in Adam’s therapy opens Lily’s eyes. She knows she must use her influence over her stepfather, who is consulting on Nori’s treatment for cancer (caused by an oil spill), to free the animal. Lily’s got several fine lines to walk, as she works to hold onto her new friend, convince her stepfather of the rightness of releasing Nori, and do what’s best for Adam. In her newest exploration of animal-human relationships, Rorby’s lonely, mature heroine faces tough but realistic situations. Siblings of children on the spectrum will identify with Lily. If the tale flirts with sentimentality and some of the characters are strident in their views, the whole never feels maudlin or didactic.
Dolphin lovers will appreciate this look at our complicated relationship with these marine mammals. (Fiction. 10-13)Pub Date: May 26, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-545-67605-2
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2015
Light in tone and satisfyingly heavy on therapeutic wish fulfillment.
Chills and cheers ensue when a bullied middle schooler’s dark side rears up and exacts a fiendish round of revenge.
Led by hulking eighth grader Logan Haggis and a widowed mom from hell, the cast of DiTerlizzi’s latest is stocked with bullies of various sizes and ages. They all get what’s coming to them when sixth grader Timothy Quibble at last permits the Wump, the glowering monster he’s begun to glimpse in mirrors and reflections, to take control of his actions. Though the metaphorical essence of the premise is obvious from the outset, readers are as likely to be thrilled by the jagged, shadowy, truly terrifying Wump as by the sweet, sweet revenge it goes on to exact. Having inflicted pain but no permanent harm, Timothy, realizing he’s gone overboard, remorsefully takes back control. The author himself goes overboard in a portrayal of his narrator’s unloving, self-absorbed mother, who’s so savage that the dab of redemption he allows her at the end comes off as perfunctory at best. Still, there are supportive characters, too—including, as a nice surprise, a former tormentor who turns out to have similar struggles of his own and who has savvy life advice to offer. The students at the slyly named Jeffrey P. Kinney Middle School display racial diversity in the gallery of yearbook portraits. DiTerlizzi’s expertly crafted grayscale illustrations with pops of bright green are a highlight.
Light in tone and satisfyingly heavy on therapeutic wish fulfillment. (Supernatural. 10-13)Pub Date: Sept. 29, 2026
ISBN: 9798217004911
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: May 18, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2026
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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