Skip.
Lucy Moon, an aspiring horse rustler from Georgia, teams up with fashionista Flor Bernoulli from New York City to outwit the tiny Square Man, who wants to destroy all the curves in the universe.
In this disjointed sequel to The Secret Spiral (2011), the two 10-year-olds, previously strangers, discover that they were destined to become pals and partners in saving the world from Square Man’s twisted designs. From Puddleville, Ga., and Brooklyn, N.Y., the two are transported to Planet Square along with Lucy’s ice-block manufacturing father, Buddy Moon, and Flor’s pie-making friend, Dr. Pi, who guards the Spiral. They befriend their lobster guard, Red Eye, escape thanks to the relationship between golden rectangles and spirals, travel through several worlds and convert their captor. Rather than building to a climax, the contrived plot collapses, leaving the wooden characters back in Georgia, asleep. The author tells, rather than showing, recapping the back stories in lengthy summaries and describing her characters rather than revealing their attributes through their actions. In spite of some foreshadowing early on, Flor’s particular superpower comes as a surprise, and the dialogue does not ring true. A barely concealed message about the consequences of bullying is likely to be lost on readers, if they get that far.
Skip. (Fantasy. 9-11)Pub Date: Feb. 19, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4169-8042-1
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: Nov. 30, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
However the compelling fitness of theme and event and the apt but unexpected imagery (the opening sentences compare the...
At a time when death has become an acceptable, even voguish subject in children's fiction, Natalie Babbitt comes through with a stylistic gem about living forever.
Protected Winnie, the ten-year-old heroine, is not immortal, but when she comes upon young Jesse Tuck drinking from a secret spring in her parents' woods, she finds herself involved with a family who, having innocently drunk the same water some 87 years earlier, haven't aged a moment since. Though the mood is delicate, there is no lack of action, with the Tucks (previously suspected of witchcraft) now pursued for kidnapping Winnie; Mae Tuck, the middle aged mother, striking and killing a stranger who is onto their secret and would sell the water; and Winnie taking Mae's place in prison so that the Tucks can get away before she is hanged from the neck until....? Though Babbitt makes the family a sad one, most of their reasons for discontent are circumstantial and there isn't a great deal of wisdom to be gleaned from their fate or Winnie's decision not to share it.
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1975
ISBN: 0312369816
Page Count: 164
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: April 13, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1975
It’s not the first time old Ben has paid our times a call, but it’s funny and free-spirited, with an informational load that...
Antics both instructive and embarrassing ensue after a mysterious package left on their doorstep brings a Founding Father into the lives of two modern children.
Summoned somehow by what looks for all the world like an old-time crystal radio set, Ben Franklin turns out to be an amiable sort. He is immediately taken in hand by 7-year-old Olive for a tour of modern wonders—early versions of which many, from electrical appliances in the kitchen to the Illinois town’s public library and fire department, he justly lays claim to inventing. Meanwhile big brother Nolan, 10, tags along, frantic to return him to his own era before either their divorced mom or snoopy classmate Tommy Tuttle sees him. Fleming, author of Ben Franklin’s Almanac (2003) (and also, not uncoincidentally considering the final scene of this outing, Our Eleanor, 2005), mixes history with humor as the great man dispenses aphorisms and reminiscences through diverse misadventures, all of which end well, before vanishing at last. Following a closing, sequel-cueing kicker (see above) she then separates facts from fancies in closing notes, with print and online leads to more of the former. To go with spot illustrations of the evidently all-white cast throughout the narrative, Fearing incorporates change-of-pace sets of sequential panels for Franklin’s biographical and scientific anecdotes. Final illustrations not seen.
It’s not the first time old Ben has paid our times a call, but it’s funny and free-spirited, with an informational load that adds flavor without weight. (Graphic/fantasy hybrid. 9-11)Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-101-93406-7
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2017
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