A dramatic and captivating call for attention.
A story of persistence and family love emphasizing respect for animals, elders, and cultural customs.
Twelve-year-old Wren, who’s Cherokee and white, has exceptional tracking skills. Her family seems to have a knack for detective work; her dad’s the town’s police chief, after all. Even though her mom vanished over five years ago, Wren remains determined to find her. But her mom is just one of the many Indigenous women in Oklahoma who have gone missing, and Wren feels pain and frustration that no one is doing more about this tragedy. Wren follows her maternal grandmother Elisi’s advice to use her “finder feelings” to reunite missing pets with their owners. During a school project, she and class partner Brantley uncover an animal mystery and work together to find the criminal. Relying on her Wolf Clan knowledge, Wren recognizes her responsibility to protect animals, herself, and others. Debut author Reno (Cherokee) offers readers a powerful story that explores heart-wrenching themes, including Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and Girls, animal torture, child abuse, and bullying. Informative backmatter expands on the epidemic of MMIWG and the meaning of the red handprint symbol, as well as Cherokee history in the book’s setting of Fort Gibson. Elisi is a source of guidance, humor, and comfort to Wren. After a slower start, the mystery unfolds, and once Wren is in pursuit of the culprit (with help from Brantley), the story takes off and will grip readers.
A dramatic and captivating call for attention. (author’s note) (Fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Sept. 17, 2024
ISBN: 9780823454808
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2024
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
Brava!
From award winner Telgemeier (Smile, 2010), a pitch-perfect graphic novel portrayal of a middle school musical, adroitly capturing the drama both on and offstage.
Seventh-grader Callie Marin is over-the-moon to be on stage crew again this year for Eucalyptus Middle School’s production of Moon over Mississippi. Callie's just getting over popular baseball jock and eighth-grader Greg, who crushed her when he left Callie to return to his girlfriend, Bonnie, the stuck-up star of the play. Callie's healing heart is quickly captured by Justin and Jesse Mendocino, the two very cute twins who are working on the play with her. Equally determined to make the best sets possible with a shoestring budget and to get one of the Mendocino boys to notice her, the immensely likable Callie will find this to be an extremely drama-filled experience indeed. The palpably engaging and whip-smart characterization ensures that the charisma and camaraderie run high among those working on the production. When Greg snubs Callie in the halls and misses her reference to Guys and Dolls, one of her friends assuredly tells her, "Don't worry, Cal. We’re the cool kids….He's the dork." With the clear, stylish art, the strongly appealing characters and just the right pinch of drama, this book will undoubtedly make readers stand up and cheer.
Brava! (Graphic fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-545-32698-8
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Graphix/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: July 21, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2012
SEEN & HEARD
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