In this sequel to her middle-school-age novel Isabel of the Whales (2006), Velmans flips the script and features a whale that turns into a boy.
Opening three years after the start of Isabel of the Whales, this new installment features Isabel having trouble adjusting to life back on land after her adventure as a humpback whale. School, boyfriends and family life don’t interest her as they might another young teen, and she longs to return to the ocean. Then she gets a shock when a beached whale near her home turns out to be her friend Jessaloup. In order to communicate with her, he becomes human. Isabel teaches Jessaloup how to walk, talk and eat like a human, then she learns that he has come to warn her of a devastating tsunami headed toward her home on Cape Cod. Isabel has trouble getting the police to take her warnings seriously, but finally convinces her science teacher, who takes her and Jessaloup to an oceanographic institute to get advice. A young scientist studying whale songs believes Isabel and helps spread the word and start the evacuation. But Isabel’s biggest surprise is yet to come, as her parents reveal the identity they’ve kept hidden from her. That secret identity, while not completely unexpected, provides a satisfying twist and reinforces a theme that runs through the story—be true to one’s self. In many ways, the plot thread involving Isabel’s family makes for a more compelling story than the tsunami threat, though Isabel and Jessaloup's race against time and the book's spirit of adventure keep the pages turning. A fantasy that will satisfy fans of Velmans’ previous work as well as new readers, budding scientists in particular.
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0983550594
Page Count: 206
Publisher: Van Horton
Review Posted Online: Aug. 5, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2011
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Extraordinary introductory terror, beautiful to the eye and sure to delight younger horror enthusiasts.
What terrors lurk within your mouth? Jasper Rabbit knows.
“You have stumbled your way into the unknown.” The young bunny introduced in Reynolds and Brown’s Caldecott Honor–winning picture book, Creepy Carrots (2012), takes up Rod Serling’s mantle, and the fit is perfect. Mimicking an episode of The Twilight Zone, the book follows Charlie Marmot, an average kid with a penchant for the strange and unusual. He’s pleased when his tonsils become infected; maybe once they’re out he can take them to school for show and tell! That’s when bizarre things start to happen: Noises in the night. Slimy trails on his bedroom floor. And when Charlie goes in for his surgery, he’s told that the tonsils have disappeared from his throat; clearly something sinister is afoot. Those not yet ready for Goosebumps levels of horror will find this a welcome starter pack. Reynolds has perfected the tension he employed in his Creepy Tales! series, and partner in crime Brown imbues each illustration with both humor and a delicate undercurrent of dark foreshadowing. While the fleshy pink tonsils—the sole spot of color in this black-and-white world—aren’t outrageously gross, there’s something distinctly disgusting about them. And though the book stars cute, furry woodland creatures, the spooky surprise ending is 100% otherworldly—a marvelous moment of twisted logic.
Extraordinary introductory terror, beautiful to the eye and sure to delight younger horror enthusiasts. (Early chapter book. 6-9)Pub Date: Sept. 2, 2025
ISBN: 9781665961080
Page Count: 88
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 30, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2025
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story.
A home-renovation project is interrupted by a family of wrens, allowing a young girl an up-close glimpse of nature.
Renata and her father enjoy working on upgrading their bathroom, installing a clawfoot bathtub, and cutting a space for a new window. One warm night, after Papi leaves the window space open, two wrens begin making a nest in the bathroom. Rather than seeing it as an unfortunate delay of their project, Renata and Papi decide to let the avian carpenters continue their work. Renata witnesses the birth of four chicks as their rosy eggs split open “like coats that are suddenly too small.” Renata finds at a crucial moment that she can help the chicks learn to fly, even with the bittersweet knowledge that it will only hasten their exits from her life. Rosen uses lively language and well-chosen details to move the story of the baby birds forward. The text suggests the strong bond built by this Afro-Latinx father and daughter with their ongoing project without needing to point it out explicitly, a light touch in a picture book full of delicate, well-drawn moments and precise wording. Garoche’s drawings are impressively detailed, from the nest’s many small bits to the developing first feathers on the chicks and the wall smudges and exposed wiring of the renovation. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at actual size.)
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: March 16, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-12320-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021
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