A charming story of perseverance, family bonds, and the transformative power of food preparation.
In Bird’s middle-grade novel, a troubled seventh grader tries to turn his life around by taking up baking.
Northern Wisconsin resident Jackson Jefferson “Jack” Wilson, who was named after three U.S. presidents, has had a rough year-and-a-half. Since his mother's death, he’s been playing a game to see how much trouble he can get away with at school, so he can “feel like a winner at something.” When he gets into a tussle with another student and accidentally knocks his tooth out, he’s suspended for the second time; a third will mean expulsion. His father, Norm, wants him to clean up his act at home, and he encourages him to find a hobby—something positive toward which he can direct his energy. After watching The Marvelous Midwest Kids Baking Championship on TV, Jack is reminded of how often his mother used to bake and decides to give it a try himself. He sticks with it, using his mom’s old cookbook and other recipes from the library where she used to work. Soon, he decides to try to get on a future season of the show. Meanwhile, Norm is engaged in his own cooking competition, preparing for an upcoming competition with local restaurants involving chicken nuggets (or, as repeated endlessly in the book, nuggies). As both Jack and Norm work, occasionally joining forces to gather “nuggie intel,” the two start to repair their relationship. Over the course of this book, Bird does an excellent job of balancing the narrative with short chapters that alternate between present action, reflections on the past, and rising tension as the twin contests approach. Set in the authentic-feeling small town of Alwyn, Wisconsin, the story also boasts a pleasing regional specificity that’s often missing from many current middle-grade books: “Almost everybody here hunts and goes fishing, but I’m not into that kind of stuff. I don’t love being outside, and I’ve got bad aim.” Young readers will find themselves rooting for Jack to succeed, particularly as he faces increasing obstacles in the second half.
A charming story of perseverance, family bonds, and the transformative power of food preparation.Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2024
ISBN: 9781645386919
Page Count: 268
Publisher: Orange Hat Publishing
Review Posted Online: June 5, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
This can’t be the last we ever hear of the Legendary Alston Boys of the purely surreal Logan County—imaginative,...
Can this really be the first time readers meet the Legendary Alston Boys of Logan County? Cousins and veteran sleuths Otto and Sheed Alston show us that we are the ones who are late to their greatness.
These two black boys are coming to terms with the end of their brave, heroic summer at Grandma’s, with a return to school just right around the corner. They’ve already got two keys to the city, but the rival Epic Ellisons—twin sisters Wiki and Leen—are steadily gaining celebrity across Logan County, Virginia, and have in hand their third key to the city. No way summer can end like this! These young people are powerful, courageous, experienced adventurers molded through their heroic commitment to discipline and deduction. They’ve got their shared, lifesaving maneuvers committed to memory (printed in a helpful appendix) and ready to save any day. Save the day they must, as a mysterious, bendy gentleman and an oversized, clingy platypus have been unleashed on the city of Fry, and all the residents and their belongings seem to be frozen in time and place. Will they be able to solve this one? With total mastery, Giles creates in Logan County an exuberant vortex of weirdness, where the commonplace sits cheek by jowl with the utterly fantastic, and populates it with memorable characters who more than live up to their setting.
This can’t be the last we ever hear of the Legendary Alston Boys of the purely surreal Logan County—imaginative, thrill-seeking readers, this is a series to look out for. (Fantasy. 10-12)Pub Date: April 2, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-328-46083-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Versify/HMH
Review Posted Online: Jan. 14, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2019
PERSPECTIVES
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