A quiet story to spark conversation about conservation and community.
While fighting to conserve a grove of trees, a young girl discovers she’s put down roots in the community surrounding her.
When 12-year-old Holly arrives in a tiny Vermont town to stay with her uncle, she’s certain her itinerant actor father will tire of his current role (understudy for Woodland Sprite #4 in A Midsummer Night’s Dream) and will soon uproot her yet again, so she vows to remain an uninvolved stranger. But it’s hard for tree-loving Holly to stay detached after she learns about a grove of endemic Arden trees that are threatened by the expansion of the town’s job-creating plastics factory. As Holly joins the fight for the grove, she realizes that trees aren’t the only ones that depend on the support of others, and that sometimes, found family can be just as important as biological relatives. Holly’s journey has a leisurely pace, and Holly is an introspective, quiet, and reflective protagonist. Her character is richly imagined, and she thrives with the support of a diverse, if rather one-dimensional, set of townsfolk. Holly and her uncle, who’s gay, read white. Adults may find more nostalgic delight in the whimsical town than young readers will, filled as it is with quaint shops and local artists. Readers seeking a title that touches on the environment, pollution, and the interconnectedness of life will find many educational moments woven into this gentle tale.
A quiet story to spark conversation about conservation and community. (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: May 28, 2024
ISBN: 9780063287969
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: March 9, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2024
The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often...
A successful juvenile by the beloved New Yorker writer portrays a farm episode with an imaginative twist that makes a poignant, humorous story of a pig, a spider and a little girl.
Young Fern Arable pleads for the life of runt piglet Wilbur and gets her father to sell him to a neighbor, Mr. Zuckerman. Daily, Fern visits the Zuckermans to sit and muse with Wilbur and with the clever pen spider Charlotte, who befriends him when he is lonely and downcast. At the news of Wilbur's forthcoming slaughter, campaigning Charlotte, to the astonishment of people for miles around, spins words in her web. "Some Pig" comes first. Then "Terrific"—then "Radiant". The last word, when Wilbur is about to win a show prize and Charlotte is about to die from building her egg sac, is "Humble". And as the wonderful Charlotte does die, the sadness is tempered by the promise of more spiders next spring.
The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often informative as amusing, and the whole tenor of appealing wit and pathos will make fine entertainment for reading aloud, too.Pub Date: Oct. 15, 1952
ISBN: 978-0-06-026385-0
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1952
PERSPECTIVES
SEEN & HEARD
Heartwarming fare for young pet owners who feel the love and loyalty going both ways.
Devotion permeates this tale of a small dog who’s swept up in a peasants’ revolt against a greedy king.
Inflamed with righteousness in the wake of yet another tax hike, 12-year-old Tom has defied his parents to slip away and join the revolutionary Reds. Stoutly declaring that he’s a good dog, 5-year-old Rebel chases after him to bring his beloved boy back—and discovers a wide new world beyond the farm, fraught with dangers but also rich in animal friends offering help and advice. Just as beguiling as the furry narrator’s dog’s-eye view of events are his ongoing arguments with Jaxon, a gruff feral hound he meets along the way, who urges him to find his wild inner True Dog. Jaxon’s refusal to be bound by emotional attachments ultimately clashes with Rebel’s big, uncomplicated heart. Following a brush with death, Rebel encounters a mystical Companion, who offers him glimpses of dog heaven; when the climactic battle arrives, Rebel declares, “I get to decide what I do with my one and only life. And if I use it for anything, I’m going to use it for love.” The author brings the odyssey to a satisfactory conclusion with one last, pure affirmation of love. In this story set in an alternate Britain reminiscent of its 17th-century Civil War, Rebel distinguishes humans in the cast by their voices, smell, and dress.
Heartwarming fare for young pet owners who feel the love and loyalty going both ways. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: May 27, 2025
ISBN: 9781536246797
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: March 8, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2025
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