A clever tale of rabbits, cabbage babies, purple carrots, mistakes made, and lessons learned.
A privileged girl and a starving rabbit unwittingly endanger their interdependent communities.
Longing to be a hero, Quincy Rabbit lives with his family in the Warren, where cabbagelike plants called Chou de vie, each containing a human baby, are grown and transported nightly to humans of Montpeyroux in exchange for purple carrots the rabbits need to live on. With Chou deliveries declining due to decreased human demand, the rabbits are starving, prompting Quincy to surreptitiously leave the Warren in search of purple carrot seeds, which he locates in a garden shed, unaware Fleurine d’Aubigné is watching him. The spoiled only child of the governing Grand Lumière, presumably White 12-year-old Fleurine is trying to grow purple carrots on her own in order to acquire a longed-for baby sister. Spying Quincy stealing her seeds, she secretly follows him to the Warren, where she steals a Chou, oblivious to how her actions will impact the Warren and Montpeyroux. Discovering his own actions accidentally led Fleurine to the Warren, Quincy knows he must undo the damage he’s caused. Narrating their stories in alternating voices, Quincy and Fleurine pass the blame as she desperately tries to protect and hide the stolen Chou while Quincy valiantly attempts to rescue and return it to the Warren. Both walk a fine line between hero and villain in this original tale based in part on European folklore.
A clever tale of rabbits, cabbage babies, purple carrots, mistakes made, and lessons learned. (author’s note) (Fantasy. 8-12)Pub Date: Oct. 25, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-06-306746-2
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2022
Eminently readable and appealing; will tug at dog-loving readers’ heartstrings.
A loquacious, lovable dog narrates the challenges of shelter life as he longs for a home.
Friendly three-legged Chance is the perfect guide to Dogtown, a shelter that houses both warmblooded and robot dogs. In fact, she’s “Management’s lucky charm,” roaming freely without being confined to a cage and leaving kibble for her mouse friend. Life is pretty good. But she still yearns for reunification with her family and, like many of the living pups, harbors suspicion of her robot counterparts, who are convenient and more easily adoptable but lacking in personality. When Metal Head, an oddly engineered e-dog, bonds with a child during a shelter reading program, Chance’s assumptions about heartless robot dogs are upended. As Chance connects with Metal Head, the two make a brief escape into the wider world, and Chance learns a familiar lesson: Everyone longs for a place to belong. Memories of Chance’s happy home loom large in her mind: Easy days with the Bessers, a sweet Black family, were disrupted by a neglectful dogsitter, the accident that cost Chance her leg, and Chance’s flight in search of safety. Chance’s chatty narrative style includes flashbacks, vignettes about fellow shelter pets, and thoughtful observations, for example, about the “boohoos,” or sad new arrivals. The story offers many moments of laughter and reflection, all greatly enhanced by West’s utterly charming grayscale illustrations of irresistible pooches.
Eminently readable and appealing; will tug at dog-loving readers’ heartstrings. (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 19, 2023
ISBN: 9781250811608
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2023
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
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