A modern-day fairy tale about a time-traveling heroine told with heart and humor.
A piano with magical properties opens up new worlds to a 9-year-old girl in this debut middle-grade fantasy.
A surprise awaits Laurel and her parents when they move into their new Lakeland, Florida, home. Tucked away in a storage shed behind the house is an antique piano. The instrument is promptly promised to Laurel as an early present for her 10th birthday. Initially, she’s less than thrilled with the development. After all, accepting the gift means her parents will likely pressure her into continuing piano lessons—a chore Laurel thought she’d left behind in North Carolina. But when an impromptu concert throws the neighborhood into chaos, Laurel discovers that the piano is enchanted. Along with a talking cat, Tatanka, and her ferret, Houdini, Laurel uses the instrument to transport herself across time and space, including into magical realms. She learns about the piano’s history through her travels and connects with Daff, a fast-talking fairy. But as Laurel learns more about the piano’s past, she’s also exposed to the dangers posed by the extraordinary instrument. Can she use magic to right past wrongs? Or will the piano’s powers fall into the hands of evil forces? The story is told in four parts. Early in the book, Sedona introduces readers to the German woodcutter who crafted the piano in 1888 and to a 20th-century magician who previously used the instrument in his act. But it’s not until Laurel arrives on the scene that the story truly begins to take shape, and oh, what a tale. Laurel, imaginative and independent, embarks on action-packed adventures. Sedona’s writing style will especially appeal to younger readers: puns abound, several characters speak in rhyme, and the tale offers plenty of shenanigans. In one memorable passage, Houdini escapes from his cage during a road trip and climbs up the pant leg of Laurel’s father. “Dad slammed the car in park, jumped out, and pulled his jeans off in the redbrick driveway,” Sedona writes. “Mothers were holding their children close for safety as Dad stood in the driveway, wearing just his boxer shorts, which read ‘Where the Sun Don’t Shine.’ ”
A modern-day fairy tale about a time-traveling heroine told with heart and humor.Pub Date: March 15, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-63338-513-9
Page Count: -
Publisher: Fulton Books
Review Posted Online: Jan. 18, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Broccoli: No way is James going to eat broccoli. “It’s disgusting,” says James. Well then, James, says his father, let’s consider the alternatives: some wormy dirt, perhaps, some stinky socks, some pre-chewed gum? James reconsiders the broccoli, but—milk? “Blech,” says James. Right, says his father, who needs strong bones? You’ll be great at hide-and-seek, though not so great at baseball and kickball and even tickling the dog’s belly. James takes a mouthful. So it goes through lumpy oatmeal, mushroom lasagna and slimy eggs, with James’ father parrying his son’s every picky thrust. And it is fun, because the father’s retorts are so outlandish: the lasagna-making troll in the basement who will be sent back to the rat circus, there to endure the rodent’s vicious bites; the uneaten oatmeal that will grow and grow and probably devour the dog that the boy won’t be able to tickle any longer since his bones are so rubbery. Schneider’s watercolors catch the mood of gentle ribbing, the looks of bewilderment and surrender and the deadpanned malarkey. It all makes James’ father’s last urging—“I was just going to say that you might like them if you tried them”—wholly fresh and unexpected advice. (Early reader. 5-9)
Pub Date: May 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-547-14956-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An absorbing fantasy centered on a resilient female protagonist facing growth, change, and self-empowerment.
In Florence’s middle-grade fantasy novel, a young girl’s heart is tested in the face of an evil, spreading Darkness.
Eleven-year-old Lydia, “freckle-cheeked and round-eyed, with hair the color of pine bark and fair skin,” is struggling with the knowledge that she has reached the age to apprentice as an herbalist. Lydia is reluctant to leave her beloved, magical Mulberry Glen and her cozy Housetree in the woods—she’ll miss Garder, the Glen’s respected philosopher; her fairy guardian Pit; her human friend Livy; and even the mischievous part-elf, part-imp, part-human twins Zale and Zamilla. But the twins go missing after hearing of a soul-sapping Darkness that has swallowed a forest and is creeping into minds and engulfing entire towns. They have secretly left to find a rare fruit that, it is said, will stop the Darkness if thrown into the heart of the mountain that rises out of the lethal forest. Lydia follows, determined to find the twins before they, too, fall victim to the Darkness. During her journey, accompanied by new friends, she gradually realizes that she herself has a dangerous role to play in the quest to stop the Darkness. In this well-crafted fantasy, Florence skillfully equates the physical manifestation of Darkness with the feelings of insecurity and powerlessness that Lydia first struggles with when thinking of leaving the Glen. Such negative thoughts grow more intrusive the closer she and her friends come to the Darkness—and to Lydia’s ultimate, powerfully rendered test of character, which leads to a satisfyingly realistic, not quite happily-ever-after ending. Highlights include a delightfully haunting, reality-shifting library and a deft sprinkling of Latin throughout the text; Pit’s pet name for Lydia is mea flosculus (“my little flower”). Fine-lined ink drawings introducing each chapter add a pleasing visual element to this well-grounded fairy tale.
An absorbing fantasy centered on a resilient female protagonist facing growth, change, and self-empowerment.Pub Date: Jan. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9781956393095
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Waxwing Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 14, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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