A story that richly integrates a fairy tale, history, and a coming-of-age quest.
In this middle-grade fantasy/historical novel, a Russian American girl journeys into folklore to confront witches and save her family.
Vasilisa Petrovna Nikolayeva and her Babka (grandmother) were both named for Vasilisa the Brave, the Russian fairy-tale hero who overcomes Baba Yaga, a fearsome witch. Now 13 years old, Vasilisa still loves to hear her mother and grandmother tell the stories, which link their present-day lives in the 1919 steel town of Edenfall, Pennsylvania, to their homeland. The three cling even closer because Vasilisa’s Papa has been missing since fighting in the trenches near Flanders, presumed dead. The family’s financial difficulties have been lessened by the frightening Mr. Goladyen, also a Russian immigrant, who is pressuring Vasilisa’s mother to marry him. Further, Vasilisa suspects he has something to do with her once-hale grandmother’s sudden decline into confusion and weakness. Meanwhile, Ivan Ivanovich Volkonsky arrives in Edenfall, having promised his dying father to help the elder Vasilisa. Discovering that Mr. Goladyen was his father’s betrayer, Ivan vows revenge. To set things right, young Vasilisa and Ivan must go on a quest to legendary Old Rus, face three Baba Yaga witches, and find an ogre’s egg. In this series opener, Mathison offers two intriguing settings from history and myth, both with their own spooky mysteries, hardships, helpers, and villains. While the Edenfall scenes are well drawn, the storytelling becomes truly compelling in Old Rus, as myth comes vividly to life. The latter setting also better fits the book’s literary, Old World phrasing used throughout (such as, “Always was my daughter thus”), which feels jarring against Edenfall’s slangy American voices (“What a whopper”). Though usually a graceful writer, the author overuses quirk as a transitive verb.
A story that richly integrates a fairy tale, history, and a coming-of-age quest.Pub Date: Feb. 23, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-73500-374-0
Page Count: 310
Publisher: Starr Creek Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 19, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Taking a page from Avi’s The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle (1990), Kehret (I’m Not Who You Think I Am, p. 223, etc.) pens a similar story of a girl who goes to sea. Determined not to be separated from her seriously ill mother, Emma, 12, embarks on a plan that results in the adventure of a lifetime. Sent to live with Aunt Martha and her arrogant son, Odolf, Emma carefully plots her escape. Disguising herself in her cousin’s used clothes, she sneaks out while the household slumbers and stows away on what she believes to be a ship carrying her parents from England to the warmer climate of France. Instead, the ship is the evil, ill-fated Black Lightning, under the command of the notorious Captain Beacon. Emma finds herself sharing quarters with a crew of filthy, surly, dangerous men. When a fierce storm swamps the ship, Emma desperately seizes her chance to escape, drifting for several days and nights aboard a hatch cover and finally carried to land somewhere on the coast of Africa. Hungry, thirsty, and alone, Emma faces the daunting prospect of slow starvation, but survives due to a relationship she builds with a band of chimpanzees. This page-turning adventure story shows evidence of solid research and experienced plotting—the pacing is breathless. Kehret paints a starkly realistic portrait, complete with sounds and smells of the difficult and unpleasant life aboard ship. (Fiction. 8-12)
Pub Date: Dec. 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-671-03416-2
Page Count: 138
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1999
PLB 0-531-33140-7 Ketcham’s first book is based on an allegedly true story of a childhood incident in the life of Johann Sebastian Bach. It starts with a couple of pages regaling the Bach home and all the Johanns in the family, who made their fame through music. After his father’s death, Johann Sebastian goes to live with his brother, Johann Christoph, where he boasts that he is the best organist in the world. Johann Christoph contradicts him: “Old Adam Reincken is the best.” So Johann Sebastian sets out to hear the master himself. In fact, he is humbled to tears, but there is hope that he will be the world’s best organist one day. Johann Sebastian emerges as little more than a brat, Reincken as more of a suggestion than a character. Bush’s illustrations are most transporting when offering details of the landscape, but his protagonist is too impish to give the story much authority. (Picture book. 5-9)
Pub Date: March 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-531-30140-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Orchard
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1999
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