A well-paced, mostly easy-to-read glimpse into one aspect of women’s history.
In this sequel of sorts to Francis Hodgson Burnett’s A Little Princess (1905), Lottie Legh, almost 13 and friend of that title’s heroine, Sara Crewe, becomes empowered by the women’s suffrage movement, growing in strength and urgency in Britain before World War I.
When she was 4, motherless Lottie was placed in a strict girls’ school in London by her icy-hearted father, who provides money but never love. After witnessing a march, Lottie buys a brooch from a suffragist shop; she reasons that, if her father knew, this action would anger him but at least force him to think about her. Learning more about the movement and reading underground publications excites Lottie; over time, she and scullery maid Sally, equally avid about the cause, form a close, secretive bond. As the novel proceeds, Lottie grows in gumption, self-awareness, and insight. Most characterizations, though, are superficial; some, like the stern headmistress’s, are stock portrayals. The author highlights the desperate measures some women took to draw attention to their plight. Webb also clarifies, through Sally’s portrait, that the struggle transcended class barriers. Readers who enjoy melodramatic narratives will appreciate learning about these events and be gripped by the final, shocking revelation about Lottie’s mother. Characters default white; an unfortunate, jarring note is the clichéd Indian speech of Sara’s guardian’s manservant, which Webb has retained from Burnett’s original work.
A well-paced, mostly easy-to-read glimpse into one aspect of women’s history. (Historical fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4926-3912-1
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
Poignant and heartwarming.
Zephyrina the cat, the “Robin Hood of felines,” rescues discarded toys so they can have new lives.
Zephyrina brings toys back to the apartment she shares with Elizaveta and her daughter, Dasha, refugees from war-torn Ukraine. Dasha reconditions Zephyrina’s rescues and sets them outside for three days, just in case they have owners who want to reclaim them. Afterward, they join the other toys in the parlor—the Second Chances Home for the Tossed and Treasured. Dasha and Elizaveta don’t know that the toys are sentient. At midnight they abandon their rigid daytime postures to cavort and play, overseen by their leader, Pocket, a tiny mascot bear made to comfort soldiers during World War I. One night, Zephyrina brings back a dirty old bear, and Pocket is astounded. The new arrival, Berwon, might come from a lost shipment of the first-ever stuffed bears, sent from Germany to the U.S. in 1903—and if so, he’s worth a fortune. In the ensuing antics, the unpleasant villain Picky Vicky covets Berwon, and a kind museum curator does, too, but for different reasons. Applegate’s writing is exquisitely nuanced; she couches profound themes in accessible language that depicts relatable situations. Gentle, generous Elizaveta and Dasha poignantly underscore the human impact of wars. Santoso’s enchanting, delicate, black-and-white illustrations bring the timeless feeling of a classic to this hopeful, humanizing story of the distressed looking out for each other.
Poignant and heartwarming. (author’s note) (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 9, 2025
ISBN: 9781250904362
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: July 3, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025
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