An unevenly constructed adventure with a steady love for transgender youth at its heart.
The prince of an alternate Texas joins a continent-spanning scavenger hunt.
Twelve-year-old Rowdy Buckner, who has dark eyes and hair and “the same brown skin passed down from ancestors who called this kingdom home long before it was a kingdom at all,” is sick of his pampered lifestyle as the future monarch of the Kingdom of Texas in the Allied Lands, a magical version of the U.S. He dreams of someday being an adventurer and gaining access to the alchemic tonics that provide gender-affirming and other physical changes so he can live as the man he’s long known himself to be. Rowdy’s parents unconditionally support his identity but say his behavior is too irresponsible and impulsive—he whines, screams at a housekeeper for smiling, and abandons friends who are in danger—to access the “powerful magick” of the tonics just yet. Rowdy decides to prove them wrong by competing in Realmsweep, a high-stakes team scavenger hunt. The hunt, which culminates in an anti-monarchy protest after the murder of a dark-skinned boy named d’Artagnan by city guards, offers big-hearted if unsubtle moral lessons that are somewhat undermined by Rowdy’s own incipient “earned” kingship at the denouement. The writing is often repetitive and expository; the magic and worldbuilding, like the moralizing, feel overstuffed but ultimately work in service of the worthy message that kids needn’t be likeable to deserve love, community, and gender-affirming care.
An unevenly constructed adventure with a steady love for transgender youth at its heart. (Fantasy. 8-12)Pub Date: Oct. 13, 2026
ISBN: 9781250423177
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: July 20, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2026
A deeply imaginative journey that puts the “cat” in cathartic.
A loyal black kitten’s boy is under supernatural attack.
Eleven-month-old Nimbus loves Fletcher, the boy who nursed her back to health following life-threatening injuries. When Fletcher becomes curious about a strange jar and opens it, releasing a terrible goblin, loyal Nim protects Fletcher, taking heavy damage in the process. But Fletcher’s aunt, who’s caring for him over spring break, believes Nim attacked Fletcher and dumps her far from home. Rhett, a stylish rat with star quality, befriends injured Nim and leads her to a witch’s house. While the witch cares for Nim, the witch’s cats (maternal Fern, bookish Rochester, standoffish Bianca, and openly hostile Abraxas) teach Nim important cat skills. She also discovers she has a supernatural ability: In destroying one eye of the nightmare demon in the fight to protect Fletcher, Nim gained its “dream sight.” But she also learns it might come back for Fletcher, who no longer has Nim to protect him, posing a time-sensitive, high-stakes threat. Even though the witch’s home is nice and magic itself seems to be telling her to stay put, Nim wants to find a way back to Fletcher. As a hero, Nimbus is as gritty and determined as she is adorable. Tear-jerker moments explore pet abandonment—readers may want their own pets on hand to hug—all the way through the magical, action-packed finale. Fletcher and the witch read white.
A deeply imaginative journey that puts the “cat” in cathartic. (Fantasy. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2023
ISBN: 9780062680372
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
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
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