Ginny must overcome a number of obstacles if she wants to become an aviatrix like Amelia Earhart—the biggest one being her own mother’s resistance to her dream.
Set in early 1930s Newfoundland, this novel is based on the author’s own family history. Twelve-year-old Ginny has been learning everything she can about engines and planes from her Uncle Harry. What she really wants more than anything is to fly. Her Papa supports her goal, as do her friends. Her mother, however, forbids it. Not only is there no money for lessons as the family struggles through the Great Depression, but her Mom believes that flying is for men. She’s barely swayed by the example Earhart is setting. After Papa’s sudden death, Mom tells Ginny she must quit school and go to work. Desperate, Ginny journeys from Newfoundland to Boston, then New York, to find her hero. After finally meeting Earhart, Ginny plans her path forward, building up to an illuminating heart-to-heart with her mother. The characters and events are richly drawn and ring authentic; the dialogue is enriched by regional and period expressions. The hurdles faced by Ginny, a girl who wants to live outside the accepted gender norms of the day, are well illustrated. Readers will be eager for the next chapter in Ginny’s story. Characters default to White.
Highlights a plucky role model for the ages. (map, glossary, photos, photo credits, author's note) (Historical fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: March 31, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-77108-824-4
Page Count: 280
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing
Review Posted Online: Dec. 23, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2021
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BOOK REVIEW
Sure signs that the creative wells are running dry at last, the Captain’s ninth, overstuffed outing both recycles a villain (see Book 4) and offers trendy anti-bullying wish fulfillment.
Not that there aren’t pranks and envelope-pushing quips aplenty. To start, in an alternate ending to the previous episode, Principal Krupp ends up in prison (“…a lot like being a student at Jerome Horwitz Elementary School, except that the prison had better funding”). There, he witnesses fellow inmate Tippy Tinkletrousers (aka Professor Poopypants) escape in a giant Robo-Suit (later reduced to time-traveling trousers). The villain sets off after George and Harold, who are in juvie (“not much different from our old school…except that they have library books here.”). Cut to five years previous, in a prequel to the whole series. George and Harold link up in kindergarten to reduce a quartet of vicious bullies to giggling insanity with a relentless series of pranks involving shaving cream, spiders, effeminate spoof text messages and friendship bracelets. Pilkey tucks both topical jokes and bathroom humor into the cartoon art, and ups the narrative’s lexical ante with terms like “pharmaceuticals” and “theatrical flair.” Unfortunately, the bullies’ sad fates force Krupp to resign, so he’s not around to save the Earth from being destroyed later on by Talking Toilets and other invaders…
Is this the end? Well, no…the series will stagger on through at least one more scheduled sequel. (Fantasy. 10-12)Pub Date: Aug. 28, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-545-17534-0
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: June 19, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2012
Categories: CHILDREN'S ACTION & ADVENTURE FICTION
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Separated from his pack, Swift, a young wolf, embarks on a perilous search for a new home.
Swift’s mother impresses on him early that his “pack belongs to the mountains and the mountains belong to the pack.” His father teaches him to hunt elk, avoid skunks and porcupines, revere the life that gives them life, and “carry on” when their pack is devastated in an attack by enemy wolves. Alone and grieving, Swift reluctantly leaves his mountain home. Crossing into unfamiliar territory, he’s injured and nearly dies, but the need to run, hunt, and live drives him on. Following a routine of “walk-trot-eat-rest,” Swift traverses prairies, canyons, and deserts, encountering men with rifles, hunger, thirst, highways, wild horses, a cougar, and a forest fire. Never imagining the “world could be so big or that I could be so alone in it,” Swift renames himself Wander as he reaches new mountains and finds a new home. Rife with details of the myriad scents, sounds, tastes, touches, and sights in Swift/Wander’s primal existence, the immediacy of his intimate, first-person, present-tense narration proves deeply moving, especially his longing for companionship. Realistic black-and-white illustrations trace key events in this unique survival story, and extensive backmatter fills in further factual information about wolves and their habitat.
A sympathetic, compelling introduction to wolves from the perspective of one wolf and his memorable journey. (additional resources, map) (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: May 7, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-06-289593-6
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 5, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2019
Categories: CHILDREN'S ACTION & ADVENTURE FICTION | CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S FAMILY
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