An imaginative tale that flies high after a slow start.
A young girl realizes she’s much more powerful—and avian—than she thought in this middle-grade novel.
Middle schooler Rosella “Rosie” Ava Bird has some pretty high aspirations: she wants to fly, and she has all sorts of ideas for new flight-related inventions and patents. She’s a pretty confident kid, but moving to a new school has shaken her up, thanks in part to the devious actions of her young next-door neighbor, Frank Furter, who bullies her whenever he has the chance. He trips her up in class, steals her things, and soon, even Rosie’s voice begins to falter—that is, until she joins the choir. One day, she sings so loudly that she shatters the windows in the choir room, and it gets weirder from there. As Rosie cultivates her birdlike voice, she starts to realize she also has a natural ability to fly. Guided by her science teacher, Mrs. Darling, Rosie must learn how to harness her powers and, most importantly, conquer Frank and his fellow bully, Perry Poopa. And she wants to win the science fair, besides. Tyrrell’s (Jo-Kin vs. Lord Tera, 2016, etc.) tale is an uplifting work about conquering bullies and staying true to oneself, and it fortunately favors action over too much emotion. However, the beginning tends to drag on a bit; it would have been better if the story had hurried to Rosie’s realization that she could have superpowers, because that’s where the fun starts. The bird allusions are also a little heavy-handed; Rosie’s family features numerous bird names (Robin, Raven), and most of the music they listen to is avian in nature (“Rockin’ Robin,” anyone?). Adults may find it hard to imagine that a child could be as cruel as Frank, but many children reading this novel will likely recognize some of their peers. Hopefully, it will inspire them to stand up for themselves and make the bullies stand down.
An imaginative tale that flies high after a slow start.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Digital Future Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 15, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs.
The Heffley family’s house undergoes a disastrous attempt at home improvement.
When Great Aunt Reba dies, she leaves some money to the family. Greg’s mom calls a family meeting to determine what to do with their share, proposing home improvements and then overruling the family’s cartoonish wish lists and instead pushing for an addition to the kitchen. Before bringing in the construction crew, the Heffleys attempt to do minor maintenance and repairs themselves—during which Greg fails at the work in various slapstick scenes. Once the professionals are brought in, the problems keep getting worse: angry neighbors, terrifying problems in walls, and—most serious—civil permitting issues that put the kibosh on what work’s been done. Left with only enough inheritance to patch and repair the exterior of the house—and with the school’s dismal standardized test scores as a final straw—Greg’s mom steers the family toward moving, opening up house-hunting and house-selling storylines (and devastating loyal Rowley, who doesn’t want to lose his best friend). While Greg’s positive about the move, he’s not completely uncaring about Rowley’s action. (And of course, Greg himself is not as unaffected as he wishes.) The gags include effectively placed callbacks to seemingly incidental events (the “stress lizard” brought in on testing day is particularly funny) and a lampoon of after-school-special–style problem books. Just when it seems that the Heffleys really will move, a new sequence of chaotic trouble and property destruction heralds a return to the status quo. Whew.
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs. (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 8-12)Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3903-3
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Nov. 18, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
Little Blue’s fans will enjoy the animal sounds and counting opportunities, but it’s the sparkling lights on the truck’s own...
The sturdy Little Blue Truck is back for his third adventure, this time delivering Christmas trees to his band of animal pals.
The truck is decked out for the season with a Christmas wreath that suggests a nose between headlights acting as eyeballs. Little Blue loads up with trees at Toad’s Trees, where five trees are marked with numbered tags. These five trees are counted and arithmetically manipulated in various ways throughout the rhyming story as they are dropped off one by one to Little Blue’s friends. The final tree is reserved for the truck’s own use at his garage home, where he is welcomed back by the tree salestoad in a neatly circular fashion. The last tree is already decorated, and Little Blue gets a surprise along with readers, as tiny lights embedded in the illustrations sparkle for a few seconds when the last page is turned. Though it’s a gimmick, it’s a pleasant surprise, and it fits with the retro atmosphere of the snowy country scenes. The short, rhyming text is accented with colored highlights, red for the animal sounds and bright green for the numerical words in the Christmas-tree countdown.
Little Blue’s fans will enjoy the animal sounds and counting opportunities, but it’s the sparkling lights on the truck’s own tree that will put a twinkle in a toddler’s eyes. (Picture book. 2-5)Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-544-32041-3
Page Count: 24
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2014
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