Despite unevenness, strong humor (from puns to Loki’s shenanigans) and hints at deeper frost giant machinations keep the...
Loki cuts Sif’s hair in this spin on the Norse myth set at Asgard Academy, first introduced in Freya and the Magic Jewel (2018).
Sif’s reluctant to share her gift for prophecy due to her struggles in reading runes and past mishaps (including a second-grade incident that cost her a best friend). She also has an interest in Thor (which Freya interprets as a crush—Sif isn’t so sure of that). Her fellow Thunder Girls suspect that Loki likes Sif and is messing with her to draw her attention away from Thor. Then Loki goes too far—cutting Sif’s hair, which is tied to her magic that enables the harvest on Midgard. This is terrible timing, as frost giants have been sneaking to Midgard to steal wheat, and signs point to a planned attack on Asgard. Now not only must Loki fix his misstep in order to avoid a food shortage, but Sif tasks him with bringing back five additional gifts for Asgard’s defense. Sif and Freya follow him to keep an eye on the troublemaker as he bargains with dwarf blacksmiths to restore Sif’s hair. Readers may be disappointed that Sif spends so much time as an observer—although there’s no question watching Loki is entertaining—and in the big reveal involving the second-grade incident and its solution, which feels anticlimactic after the buildup. The book assumes a white default.
Despite unevenness, strong humor (from puns to Loki’s shenanigans) and hints at deeper frost giant machinations keep the series moving. (further reading, glossary) (Fantasy. 8-12)Pub Date: Oct. 16, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4814-9643-8
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: Aug. 13, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2018
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
PERSPECTIVES
SEEN & HEARD
A successful call for creating and imagining, even if the story itself falls short.
In the dystopian, totalitarian world of 2099, 14-year-old Tessa and her family are desperate to solve the mystery of her twin brother Theo’s disappearance.
Tessa is growing up in a time when playgrounds are historical relics, surveillance cameras are everywhere, music is outlawed, and owning books is illegal. Under the absolute rule of Zokiris, the decadeslong leader of her territory, people are heavily controlled. When Theo vanishes under mysterious circumstances and his name is erased from the Territory Statistics list, Tessa’s 135-year-old neighbor, Miriam, gives the family contraband books that become central to figuring out Theo’s whereabouts. Most books have long since been seized and stored away in Building 903; Tessa is intrigued by their presence in her home, while her mother is terrified. Lowry, the acclaimed, award-winning author of The Giver (1993), shines in her creation of uncomfortably believable dystopian societies. Tessa’s painfully limited world is fully imagined, with its own history, laws, and norms. Her relationship with her brother reads as realistic and tender and is crucial to the mystery. Miriam is the most strongly developed character: wise and independent, unafraid and hopeful. While the climb to the book’s climax is captivating, the hurried resolution is disappointing. The powerful messaging around the importance of literature and imagination certainly resonates, however. The main characters present white.
A successful call for creating and imagining, even if the story itself falls short. (Dystopian. 9-12)Pub Date: Sept. 29, 2026
ISBN: 9780063515109
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Clarion/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 6, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2026
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