A rollicking, charming historical thriller
Set in Scotland and northern England, BBC journalist Kerr’s middle-grade debut is based on the true story of a marketing stunt in 1872, when an elephant called Maharajah was ridden from Edinburgh to Manchester.
When brown-skinned orphan Danny, a mute, mixed-race street urchin, is dispatched to an Edinburgh auction by a criminal gang leader, he accidentally helps Mr. Jameson, owner of the Belle Vue menagerie, buy Maharajah. Maharajah is owned by a rival traveling circus that is closing down. When Jameson accepts an impossible wager—to walk Maharajah from Edinburgh to Manchester in less than seven days, or lose everything—he offers Danny the job of doing so, as he observes that Danny and Maharajah seem to immediately have a special connection. He transforms Danny into a bejeweled “Indian prince,” or Prince Dandip. As he rides Maharajah from Scotland to England, even Queen Victoria takes an interest. Danny becomes a celebrity, but his past entanglements, including a notorious gang leader, are following, desperate to ruin him. Given that the novel is based on true events, readers may know Danny and Maharajah do reach Manchester (a skeleton of the real Maharajah is on display in Manchester Museum). Yet Kerr provides ample historical detail and fictional twists to keep readers engaged to the end. Her measured third-person narrative develops Danny and the secondary cast with affection and nuance, Danny’s consciousness of his difference and the slights he suffers because of it ever present.
A rollicking, charming historical thriller . (Historical fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: March 27, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-338-18843-1
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Chicken House/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Nov. 26, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2017
Hugely entertaining, timely, and triumphant.
Robot Roz undertakes an unusual ocean journey to save her adopted island home in this third series entry.
When a poison tide flowing across the ocean threatens their island, Roz works with the resident creatures to ensure that they will have clean water, but the destruction of vegetation and crowding of habitats jeopardize everyone’s survival. Brown’s tale of environmental depredation and turmoil is by turns poignant, graceful, endearing, and inspiring, with his (mostly) gentle robot protagonist at its heart. Though Roz is different from the creatures she lives with or encounters—including her son, Brightbill the goose, and his new mate, Glimmerwing—she makes connections through her versatile communication abilities and her desire to understand and help others. When Roz accidentally discovers that the replacement body given to her by Dr. Molovo is waterproof, she sets out to seek help and discovers the human-engineered source of the toxic tide. Brown’s rich descriptions of undersea landscapes, entertaining conversations between Roz and wild creatures, and concise yet powerful explanations of the effect of the poison tide on the ecology of the island are superb. Simple, spare illustrations offer just enough glimpses of Roz and her surroundings to spark the imagination. The climactic confrontation pits oceangoing mammals, seabirds, fish, and even zooplankton against hardware and technology in a nicely choreographed battle. But it is Roz’s heroism and peacemaking that save the day.
Hugely entertaining, timely, and triumphant. (author’s note) (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2023
ISBN: 9780316669412
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2023
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
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