An uninspiring musical journey.
A young violinist learns to rock out.
Flora loves to play tunes for Auntie Flora, her namesake and great-great-aunt, who lives with her family. She also enjoys playing classical music with the Arden String Quartet, where she’s first violin. When retired rock star Theo DeLuca moves to town after the tragic death of his young daughter, his son, Simon, becomes Flora’s classmate. Simon invites her to join him for the local Battle of the Bands competition, and Flora accepts after jamming out to rock music with him. But she finds that this decision creates tension within the quartet, who are also part of the competition. Further adding to her troubles is Auntie Flora’s hospitalization for pneumonia, which is making the younger Flora anxious for her life. All is neatly resolved in the end, perhaps too much so. Flora feels underdeveloped as a character, without enough description beyond her interest in music to make her feel fully dimensional. The secondary characters, including Simon and Auntie Flora, are even less nuanced, generally possessing an attribute or two but not feeling especially realistic. The narrative voice is generic, and particularly lacking is any meaningful description of playing music; at one point during the rock group’s practice, Flora aligns with the book’s tendency to tell rather than show, describing her experience as, “It’s magical. It’s exciting. It’s amazing.” The ultimate result is a tale that falls flat. Major characters present white.
An uninspiring musical journey. (author interview) (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2024
ISBN: 9781772783223
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Pajama Press
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2024
Quirky and imaginative—postmodern storytelling at its best.
Friendly curiosity and a gift for naming earn a polar bear an assortment of (mostly animal) friends, adventures, mishaps, and discoveries.
Arriving at a northern ocean, Duane spies a shipwreck. Swimming out to investigate, he meets its lone occupant, C.C., a learned snowy owl whose noble goal is acquiring knowledge to apply “toward the benefit of all.” Informing Duane that he’s a polar bear, she points out a nearby cave that might suit him—it even has a mattress. Adding furnishings from the wreck—the grandfather clock’s handless, but who needs to tell time when it’s always now?—he meets a self-involved musk ox, entranced by his own reflection, who’s delighted when Duane names him “Handsome.” As he comes to understand, then appreciate their considerable diversity, Duane brings out the best in his new friends. C.C., who has difficulty reading emotions and dislikes being touched, evokes the autism spectrum. Magic, a bouncy, impulsive arctic fox, manifests ADHD. Major Puff, whose proud puffin ancestry involves courageous retreats from danger, finds a perfect companion in Twitch, a risk-aware, common-sensical hare. As illustrated, Sun Girl, a human child, appears vaguely Native, and Squint, a painter, white, but they’re sui generis: The Canadian author avoids referencing human culture. The art conveys warmth in an icy setting; animal characters suggest beloved stuffed toys, gently reinforcing the message that friendship founded on tolerance breeds comfort and safety.
Quirky and imaginative—postmodern storytelling at its best. (Animal fantasy. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5344-3341-0
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: May 7, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2019
Telgemeier’s bold colors, superior visual storytelling, and unusual subject matter will keep readers emotionally engaged and...
Catrina narrates the story of her mixed-race (Latino/white) family’s move from Southern California to Bahía de la Luna on the Northern California coast.
Dad has a new job, but it’s little sister Maya’s lungs that motivate the move: she has had cystic fibrosis since birth—a degenerative breathing condition. Despite her health, Maya loves adventure, even if her lungs suffer for it and even when Cat must follow to keep her safe. When Carlos, a tall, brown, and handsome teen Ghost Tour guide introduces the sisters to the Bahía ghosts—most of whom were Spanish-speaking Mexicans when alive—they fascinate Maya and she them, but the terrified Cat wants only to get herself and Maya back to safety. When the ghost adventure leads to Maya’s hospitalization, Cat blames both herself and Carlos, which makes seeing him at school difficult. As Cat awakens to the meaning of Halloween and Day of the Dead in this strange new home, she comes to understand the importance of the ghosts both to herself and to Maya. Telgemeier neatly balances enough issues that a lesser artist would split them into separate stories and delivers as much delight textually as visually. The backmatter includes snippets from Telgemeier’s sketchbook and a photo of her in Día makeup.
Telgemeier’s bold colors, superior visual storytelling, and unusual subject matter will keep readers emotionally engaged and unable to put down this compelling tale. (Graphic fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 13, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-545-54061-2
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: July 1, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2016
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