For readers who need their endings safe.
The myth of the power of music and love is retold for middle-graders with nuanced beauty but marred by a happy epilogue.
The veteran storytellers who reworked this story have made a creditable and even beautiful version, using language that is clear and stately. Orpheus is a musician who can make even the trees dance. A bad omen at his wedding is fulfilled when, the next day, his bride, Eurydice, goes for a walk at dawn and is felled by a snake bite. Orpheus follows her down into the underworld, and his music so moves Persephone and her husband, Hades, that the god of the underworld allows Eurydice to return to life. Orpheus must not look back until they reach the world of the living. Alas, she trips, he turns to help her, and she is gone. Orpheus pours out his grief in music until the jealous god Dionysius inflames a group of women to hack Orpheus to pieces, although his head and his lyre continue to play and sing. In this version, Persephone restores memory to both Orpheus and Eurydice so they can spend the afterlife together—an interpolation that provides emotional relief but guts the story of its power. The rich, matte illustrations are done in a pleasing, patterned style that complements the vivid, never sensational telling.
For readers who need their endings safe. (pronunciation guide, bibliography, family tree of the Greek gods, Olympians) (Mythology. 8-12)Pub Date: May 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-84686-784-2
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Barefoot Books
Review Posted Online: March 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Set in a candy factory as tantalizingly fragrant as Willy Wonka’s, this half-mystery, half–jigsaw-puzzle novel is a mild-mannered cousin to The Westing Game and When You Reach Me. Four 12-year-olds enter a candy-making contest. Logan lives in the confection plant with his parents, who own it; he narrates first, then the arc rewinds for the other contestants’ viewpoints. Miles, who witnessed a drowning, adds a poignant fragility in his portion. Daisy narrates and readers see—shockingly—that she’s a professional spy. Philip’s no spy, but his section reveals unsavory intentions on multiple levels. There’s no murder here—nor even death, it turns out; instead, there’s forgiveness, correction of dishonor and an alignment of seemingly disparate events. This isn’t fantasy, though it calls for a heaping cup of (enjoyable) suspension of disbelief (unflaggingly supportive grown-ups; chocolate pizza for lunch; adult confirmation that chocolate could potentially turn into gum and back again). Sweets fans will love the gooey sensory details. Earnest and sweet, with enough salty twists not to taste saccharine. (Fiction. 8-12)
Pub Date: Oct. 5, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-316-00258-5
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2010
Nellie Bly’s contemporary namesake does her proud.
Eleven-year-old Nellie’s investigative reporting leads her to solve a mystery, start a newspaper, and learn key lessons about growing up.
Nellie’s voice is frank and often funny—and always full of information about newspapers. She tells readers of the first meeting of her newspaper club and then says, “But maybe I’m burying the lede…what Dad calls it when a reporter puts the most interesting part…in the middle or toward the end.” (This and other journalism vocabulary is formally defined in a closing glossary.) She backtracks to earlier that summer, when she and her mother were newly moved into a house next to her mother’s best friend in rural Bear Creek, Maine. Nellie explains that the newspaper that employed both of her parents in “the city” had folded soon after her father left for business in Asia. When Bear Creek Park gets closed due to mysterious, petty crimes, Nellie feels compelled to investigate. She feels closest to her dad when on the park’s swings, and she is more comfortable interviewing adults than befriending peers. Getting to know a plethora of characters through Nellie’s eyes is as much fun as watching Nellie blossom. Although astute readers will have guessed the park’s vandalizers, they are rewarded by observing Nellie’s fact-checking process. A late revelation about Nellie’s father does not significantly detract from this fully realized story of a young girl adjusting admirably to new circumstances. Nellie and her mother present white; secondary characters are diverse.
Nellie Bly’s contemporary namesake does her proud. (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: March 10, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-7624-9685-3
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Running Press
Review Posted Online: Nov. 23, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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