Dance, drama, and a star turn make this a page-turning tale.
Ballet is beautiful for a mouse ballerina.
Irina, a white, Russian girl whose parents work backstage at the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg, loves ballet. Esmeralda, a Russian mouse who lives in the Mariinsky, also loves ballet. It’s 1892, and The Nutcracker: A Ballet in Two Acts with music by Pyotr Ilich Tchaikovsky is set to premier. The mice also have a company, the Russian Mouse Ballet Company, and are planning their own production to the same music. But Esmeralda faces a terrible conflict. Can a mouse troupe dance to a scenario that features evil mice who are defeated in battle? Kladstrup has crafted a dual tale filled with charm, humor, conflict, and danger. The humans (most of them, at least) are out to exterminate the mice; Tchaikovsky is especially rodentophobic, while Irina is especially sympathetic and helpful. Esmeralda emerges as the perfect main character. She faces trials as a dancer—managing her tail properly is difficult. She displays courage and know-how in obtaining costumes from Irina’s doll, crafts an appropriate mouse version of the story, and best of all, she finds her dance muse in the gloriously enchanting score. The synopses for both ballets are included. Helquist’s full-page panels in shades of black are delightfully expressive and are filled with charming details.
Dance, drama, and a star turn make this a page-turning tale. (author’s note) (Animal fantasy. 9-12)Pub Date: Oct. 24, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-7636-8519-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: July 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Though paranormal explanations are only gently hinted at, the angelic twist at the conclusion is satisfyingly appropriate...
Since June Bug, Nicola’s new dog, gets into way too much trouble, lately the girl’s been worried that her pet will be sent away.
Are June Bug’s issues related to whatever is causing recent gloom around town? The playground at school seems to be tilting out of balance, Nicola’s grade-five teacher has become remarkably cranky, no one has put up Christmas lights, Nicola’s older brother is totally focused on an angels-vs.-demons computer game, and the elderly patients at Shady Oaks are living in dismal conditions. Even June Bug’s clever tricks (Nicola hopes that doing good deeds at the home can redeem her pet) can’t do much to improve this last problem. Although Nicola isn’t initially too happy about becoming friends with classmate Lindsay, it’s the latter’s discovery—that angels could be everywhere—that inspires Nicola’s idea that people must do the hard work of creating goodness, thus guiding the pair to some surprising revelations. Characters are gloriously quirky: Lindsay is obsessed with brides (with good reason); Shady Oaks resident Mr. Milton speaks in mysterious metaphors that turn out to be quotes from a more famous Milton; Nicola navigates concepts of hell and goodness, looking for reasonable answers to ponderous questions.
Though paranormal explanations are only gently hinted at, the angelic twist at the conclusion is satisfyingly appropriate and more about human goodness than evangelizing—entirely in keeping with the book. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Sept. 9, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-55498-428-2
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Groundwood
Review Posted Online: July 15, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2014
Hagen’s first children’s book, flavored with Norse mythology, is brimful of antic energy and inventive flair, like the best...
Aunt Jaz has always evaded Gabriel’s questions about his father’s disappearance and won’t discuss Uncle Corax (whose unpleasant, bird-of-prey visage hangs among the family portraits in their Brooklyn mansion); then shortly before Gabriel’s 12th birthday, she gives him his father’s childhood notebook, which reveals the magical bond between humans and ravens.
Simultaneously, Paladin, a raven chick being raised by his mother nearby, learns that Gabriel’s family, like his own, possesses the rare ability to communicate across species and that when a human and raven form a close amicus bond, the two can join together in one body, human or raven. Paladin’s mother explains how riddles—funny ones, especially—which ravens love, protect them from their ancient enemies, valravens, avian ghouls whose inability to appreciate riddles gives them away. The first valraven, Huginn, born a raven like his brother, Muninn, sought immortality from a cursed, magical torc that promised him eternal life if he consumed the flesh of his dead amicus. Now Valravens seek the torc again while Gabriel and Paladin—supported and hindered by a cast of quirky characters, male and female, human and avian—vow to stop them and rescue Gabriel’s father from the underground city of Aviopolis.
Hagen’s first children’s book, flavored with Norse mythology, is brimful of antic energy and inventive flair, like the best middle-grade fantasies; readers, like baby birds, will devour it and clamor for future installments. (Fantasy. 9-12)Pub Date: Aug. 26, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-385-37103-2
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random
Review Posted Online: July 28, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
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