by Fiadhnait Moser ; illustrated by Vivien Mildenberger ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 2018
An ambitious story that suffers from a lack of clarity.
Sometimes family is the friends you make and sometimes the friends you make turn out to be family.
In 1927 England, 11-year-old Floralie Alice Laurel and her older brother, Tom, survive by selling flowers—Floralie from a basket on the street and Tom from his shop. They also get help from their grandmother. However, Grandmama’s help comes with strings attached. Grandmama owns an orphanage, and she is convinced that Floralie would be better off there and less likely to succumb to the mental illness experienced by their artist mother. In an effort to escape Grandmama’s clutches and find her mother, Floralie accepts the help of a quiet boy living in the attic over the flower shop and the local librarian, who is blind. They escape with her to France to find someone who can decipher the flowers she found hidden in the wall of the attic. This confusing series of events relies heavily on coincidence and is delivered in language that is often as flowery as Floralie’s sales job. Interesting flashbacks are woven well into the story, and the quirky relationship Floralie has with the world is intriguing. Mental illness plays a confusing role in the story, presented as an affliction that Floralie’s mother suffers from but with no clear explanation or exploration of it. A few black-and-white sketches illustrate the cast of white characters.
An ambitious story that suffers from a lack of clarity. (Fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: May 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4998-0668-7
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Yellow Jacket
Review Posted Online: March 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2018
Share your opinion of this book
by Soman Chainani ; illustrated by Iacopo Bruno ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 14, 2013
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic.
Chainani works an elaborate sea change akin to Gregory Maguire’s Wicked (1995), though he leaves the waters muddied.
Every four years, two children, one regarded as particularly nice and the other particularly nasty, are snatched from the village of Gavaldon by the shadowy School Master to attend the divided titular school. Those who survive to graduate become major or minor characters in fairy tales. When it happens to sweet, Disney princess–like Sophie and her friend Agatha, plain of features, sour of disposition and low of self-esteem, they are both horrified to discover that they’ve been dropped not where they expect but at Evil and at Good respectively. Gradually—too gradually, as the author strings out hundreds of pages of Hogwarts-style pranks, classroom mishaps and competitions both academic and romantic—it becomes clear that the placement wasn’t a mistake at all. Growing into their true natures amid revelations and marked physical changes, the two spark escalating rivalry between the wings of the school. This leads up to a vicious climactic fight that sees Good and Evil repeatedly switching sides. At this point, readers are likely to feel suddenly left behind, as, thanks to summary deus ex machina resolutions, everything turns out swell(ish).
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic. (Fantasy. 11-13)Pub Date: May 14, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-06-210489-2
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2013
Share your opinion of this book
More In The Series
by Soman Chainani ; illustrated by Iacopo Bruno
by Soman Chainani ; illustrated by Iacopo Bruno
by Soman Chainani ; illustrated by Iacopo Bruno
More by Soman Chainani
BOOK REVIEW
by Soman Chainani ; illustrated by RaidesArt
BOOK REVIEW
by Soman Chainani ; illustrated by RaidesArt
BOOK REVIEW
by Soman Chainani ; illustrated by Julia Iredale
More About This Book
BOOK TO SCREEN
by Katherine Marsh ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 7, 2018
A captivating book situated in present-day discourse around the refugee crisis, featuring two boys who stand by their high...
Two parallel stories, one of a Syrian boy from Aleppo fleeing war, and another of a white American boy, son of a NATO contractor, dealing with the challenges of growing up, intersect at a house in Brussels.
Ahmed lost his father while crossing the Mediterranean. Alone and broke in Europe, he takes things into his own hands to get to safety but ends up having to hide in the basement of a residential house. After months of hiding, he is discovered by Max, a boy of similar age and parallel high integrity and courage, who is experiencing his own set of troubles learning a new language, moving to a new country, and being teased at school. In an unexpected turn of events, the two boys and their new friends Farah, a Muslim Belgian girl, and Oscar, a white Belgian boy, successfully scheme for Ahmed to go to school while he remains in hiding the rest of the time. What is at stake for Ahmed is immense, and so is the risk to everyone involved. Marsh invites art and history to motivate her protagonists, drawing parallels to gentiles who protected Jews fleeing Nazi terror and citing present-day political news. This well-crafted and suspenseful novel touches on the topics of refugees and immigrant integration, terrorism, Islam, Islamophobia, and the Syrian war with sensitivity and grace.
A captivating book situated in present-day discourse around the refugee crisis, featuring two boys who stand by their high values in the face of grave risk and succeed in drawing goodwill from others. (Historical fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Aug. 7, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-250-30757-6
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: June 10, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2018
Share your opinion of this book
More by Katherine Marsh
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
by Katherine Marsh ; illustrated by Kelly Murphy
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Hey there, book lover.
We’re glad you found a book that interests you!
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.
Don’t fret. We’ll find you.