by Jane Yolen ‧ RELEASE DATE: Dec. 23, 2014
Sweet and engaging but less than the sum of its parts. (Fantasy. 8-12)
A whimsical fairy tale is stretched rather thin in this low-key novella.
James, heir to the duchy of Callanshire, has spent most of his 8 1/2 years asking nonstop questions, until his loving but exasperated family ships him off to Cranford Abbey to be educated. But the monks are otherwise preoccupied with driving off the unicorns that feast upon their apple orchard. Countless heroes have tried and failed to stop the annual raids; how can one clever and homesick little boy come up with the perfect solution? Yolen (who simply cannot write a graceless sentence) displays her strengths here: poking fun at heroic stereotypes, celebrating curiosity and imagination, and revealing both the homely everydayness of the magical and the wondrous beauty of the ordinary. Each individual vignette—charming, witty, poignant and dreamlike—is perfect in itself; yet stitched together, the awkward shifts in viewpoint and tone betray the narrative’s origin as an expanded short story. It is difficult to identify a target audience: The sophisticated prose and subtle themes are suited for middle-graders, but few are likely to identify with such a young protagonist; this might work best as a classroom (or bedtime) read-aloud. The handsome design complements Yolen's prose.
Sweet and engaging but less than the sum of its parts. (Fantasy. 8-12)Pub Date: Dec. 23, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-310-74648-5
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Zonderkidz
Review Posted Online: Sept. 2, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2014
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by Aimee Lucido ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 14, 2021
A disjointed yet sincere story about family, Judaism, and finding oneself.
Hannah is desperate to be Jewish.
Grandma Mimi, her mother’s mother, is Jewish, so according to Jewish law she must be too, right? Even if her White father, who was raised Catholic, and her nonreligious mother don’t seem to think so. When Hannah attends her best friend Shira’s bat mitzvah, she finally finds the place where she feels she belongs, and she decides to have her very own bat mitzvah. Unfortunately, her parents—especially her mother—vehemently disagree. So, Hannah schemes with Grandma Mimi and Aunt Yael, a rabbi and her mother’s estranged sister, to prepare for her own bat mitzvah. Hannah secretly learns Hebrew and studies her Torah portion in six months, and her rapid mastery of the language feels unrealistic. Her experience is an authentic portrayal of struggling to find oneself through religion even when parents may not be supportive. However, Hannah’s parents’ constant negativity about Judaism—her father frequently “jokes” in ways that read like microaggressions, and the context for her mother’s hostile comments is not revealed until the end—will be deeply uncomfortable for some readers, though the novel does end with a positive message of love and acceptance. The mix of prose, poetry, and recipes is original, but the execution leads to a disjointed and choppy read. Readers questioning their sense of belonging could find this to be exactly what they need.
A disjointed yet sincere story about family, Judaism, and finding oneself. (author's note) (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 14, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-358-38691-9
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Versify/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 7, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2021
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by Jeanne Zulick Ferruolo ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 4, 2020
A beautifully rendered setting enfolds a disappointing plot.
In sixth grade, Izzy Mancini’s cozy, loving world falls apart.
She and her family have moved out of the cottage she grew up in. Her mother has spent the summer on Block Island instead of at home with Izzy. Her father has recently returned from military service in Afghanistan partially paralyzed and traumatized. The only people she can count on are Zelda and Piper, her best friends since kindergarten—that is, until the Haidary family moves into the upstairs apartment. At first, Izzy resents the new guests from Afghanistan even though she knows she should be grateful that Dr. Haidary saved her father’s life. But despite her initial resistance (which manifests at times as racism), as Izzy gets to know Sitara, the Haidarys’ daughter, she starts to question whether Zelda and Piper really are her friends for forever—and whether she has the courage to stand up for Sitara against the people she loves. Ferruolo weaves a rich setting, fully immersing readers in the largely white, coastal town of Seabury, Rhode Island. Disappointingly, the story resolves when Izzy convinces her classmates to accept Sitara by revealing the Haidarys’ past as American allies, a position that put them in so much danger that they had to leave home. The idea that Sitara should be embraced only because her family supported America, rather than simply because she is a human being, significantly undermines the purported message of tolerance for all.
A beautifully rendered setting enfolds a disappointing plot. (Fiction. 10-12)Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-374-30909-1
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Nov. 23, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
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