An engrossing religious and historical account that would make a valuable companion to a high school history unit on Joan of...
Debut YA that fictionalizes the life of Joan of Arc.
Ng begins this tale in the early 1400s with the childhood of Joan of Arc. The story is told in the second person, with the narrator addressing St. Margaret of Antioch, who has returned from heaven years after her death to provide Joan with messages from St. Catherine and the archangel Michael. These biblical figures instruct Joan to leave her childhood home in Domremy and assist King Charles VII in rescuing the French from British dominion. When Joan finally travels to Chinon to see Charles, Margaret is her near-constant (but always invisible) companion. During Joan’s journey, Ng provides many interesting details about life in France during the 15th century, as well as the battle between the French and the English (now known as the Hundred Years’ War) that had been ongoing since 1337. When Joan reaches Chinon, she is laughed at for insisting that she join the fight. As a young girl in an extremely male-dominated era, Joan must exhibit tremendous perseverance, patience and wit before she can convince the king even to see her. After passing every test that Charles’ men throw at her, she is eventually embraced by the French monarchy. Joan soon leads the charge against the English, miraculously achieving multiple victories in battle. Ng takes great pains to show Joan’s humanity and compassion for the casualties of war on both sides. As the fighting continues, Ng portrays Joan’s capture by the British as well as her difficult trial in their courts. Throughout this harrowing period for Joan, St. Margaret offers her solace. Despite the unusual narration, Ng manages to draw readers to Joan’s side during her tribulations, and he creates sympathetic characters in both Joan and Margaret. Readers might hope that divine intervention will lead to a different outcome than in the true historical account.
An engrossing religious and historical account that would make a valuable companion to a high school history unit on Joan of Arc.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 978-1497435933
Page Count: 233
Publisher: Three Daughters Press
Review Posted Online: July 6, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A reassuring riff on embracing imperfections.
A young rabbit frets about her upcoming violin performance in Icelandic singer-songwriter Laufey’s literary debut.
Mei Mei’s dream—“to share her music with the world”—is about to come true. She’s having her very first recital, complete with an orchestra, at the H’Opera House. But the day before the concert, Mei Mei is racked with anxiety. What if she plays a bum note in front of everyone? Sure enough, the worst happens mid-performance: She hits a clinker. But by remembering her mom’s reassuring sentiments from the night before (“Feel the wind…find the notes to make it right”), Mei Mei summons the strength to soldier on, and “wrong notes become right. Dissonance becomes beautiful.” At times, it all feels more like a resilience parable than a story, and the writing can be precious (“The flutter of butterflies wakes Mei Mei from her slumber”). Still, the message is solid, bolstered by O’Hara’s pencil and watercolor illustrations, which are plush-toy soft—fitting, as even prior to this book’s publication, a stuffed Mei Mei has been for sale at Grammy winner Laufey’s website. The tale features an all-animal, all-adorable cast, and endearingly, the art betrays no hint of modern times. A standout image presents Mei Mei onstage, temporarily incapacitated by her mistake and imagining her fellow musicians and their instruments with the color-blasted menace of an expressionist painting.
A reassuring riff on embracing imperfections. (author’s note, glossary) (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: April 21, 2026
ISBN: 9798217051748
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2026
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs.
The Heffley family’s house undergoes a disastrous attempt at home improvement.
When Great Aunt Reba dies, she leaves some money to the family. Greg’s mom calls a family meeting to determine what to do with their share, proposing home improvements and then overruling the family’s cartoonish wish lists and instead pushing for an addition to the kitchen. Before bringing in the construction crew, the Heffleys attempt to do minor maintenance and repairs themselves—during which Greg fails at the work in various slapstick scenes. Once the professionals are brought in, the problems keep getting worse: angry neighbors, terrifying problems in walls, and—most serious—civil permitting issues that put the kibosh on what work’s been done. Left with only enough inheritance to patch and repair the exterior of the house—and with the school’s dismal standardized test scores as a final straw—Greg’s mom steers the family toward moving, opening up house-hunting and house-selling storylines (and devastating loyal Rowley, who doesn’t want to lose his best friend). While Greg’s positive about the move, he’s not completely uncaring about Rowley’s action. (And of course, Greg himself is not as unaffected as he wishes.) The gags include effectively placed callbacks to seemingly incidental events (the “stress lizard” brought in on testing day is particularly funny) and a lampoon of after-school-special–style problem books. Just when it seems that the Heffleys really will move, a new sequence of chaotic trouble and property destruction heralds a return to the status quo. Whew.
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs. (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 8-12)Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3903-3
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Nov. 18, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
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