A smashing young hero easily carries this historically rich tale.
In Kolomiychenko’s middle-grade novel, a contemporary Florida girl dream-travels to WWI-era Scotland and joins suffragettes in fighting for women’s rights.
Merida Aldham dreams she’s in a strange place, which turns out to be 1914 Glasgow. She shows up in the midst of a protest march in which Margaret “Maggie” MacFarlane leads women in chanting their demands: “Give us equal rights!” Merida’s teacher recently assigned a paper on women’s voting rights, and Merida, who has Scottish heritage, has been researching Scotland—so maybe that’s why she keeps reconnecting with Maggie each night. In her waking life, Merida and her classmates are shocked by the administration’s announcement of a new school uniform policy. Before it takes effect, the students, including Merida’s best friend, Ellie Jessop, protest. Merida comes up with a plan that entails more than waving signs—she negotiates with the principal and then agrees to his compromise: He’ll put the notion of school uniforms up for staff voting if students can go five days without a single dress code violation. Kolomiychenko’s story, which launches a series, is bountiful in educational value; readers will pick up compelling details about Scottish history and real-life suffragette Margaret MacFarlane. Merida is a superlative protagonist. She helps treat wounded soldiers in 1914, despite feeling faint from the intensity of the situation, and she meticulously plans her fight against the school uniform policy. All the while, her relationships with buoyant Maggie, charmingly rash Ellie, and her own doting mother are superbly developed. Other supporting characters, though, are left on the back burner, including Merida’s pal Brock, whom she may be secretly crushing on, and another friend named Aubrey who barely registers. Then again, sequels can further explore these bonds, along with the mysteries surrounding Merida’s vivid dream-traveling (how does the injury she received in a dream show up when she’s awake?).
A smashing young hero easily carries this historically rich tale.Pub Date: Oct. 10, 2025
ISBN: 9798990957916
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: July 9, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
Charming, poignant, and thoughtfully woven.
An aspiring scientist and a budding artist become friends and help each other with dream projects.
Unfolding in mid-1980s Sacramento, California, this story stars 12-year-olds Rosalind and Benjamin as first-person narrators in alternating chapters. Ro’s father, a fellow space buff, was killed by a drunk driver; the rocket they were working on together lies unfinished in her closet. As for Benji, not only has his best friend, Amir, moved away, but the comic book holding the clue for locating his dad is also missing. Along with their profound personal losses, the protagonists share a fixation with the universe’s intriguing potential: Ro decides to complete the rocket and hopes to launch mementos of her father into outer space while Benji’s conviction that aliens and UFOs are real compels his imagination and creativity as an artist. An accident in science class triggers a chain of events forcing Benji and Ro, who is new to the school, to interact and unintentionally learn each other’s secrets. They resolve to find Benji’s dad—a famous comic-book artist—and partner to finish Ro’s rocket for the science fair. Together, they overcome technical, scheduling, and geographical challenges. Readers will be drawn in by amusing and fantastical elements in the comic book theme, high emotional stakes that arouse sympathy, and well-drawn character development as the protagonists navigate life lessons around grief, patience, self-advocacy, and standing up for others. Ro is biracial (Chinese/White); Benji is White.
Charming, poignant, and thoughtfully woven. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Jan. 12, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-06-300888-5
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2020
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