A transporting trip punctuated by absorbing twists and turns.
Four characters embark on the adventure of their lives in the frozen land of Joya.
After the Royal Couple who reside in the Ice Palace rescue a girl named Lee from a snowbank, Lee develops friendships with the couple’s menagerie of anthropomorphic animals: the pink pony Little Marvel, Garbonzo the mastiff and Beanie the pug. The exceptional creatures join together to help Lee recover. She feels a particular connection with Marvel, who caringly listens to her recollection of the family car accident that landed her in the snow. Unsettling details of her father’s drinking and driving, as well as Lee’s concern for her parents and baby sister, Claire, touch Marvel’s heart. Lee discovers that in order to get home, she must first locate the Treasure House, and she and Marvel set off on a journey, occasionally assisted by the Pink Cloud of Perfection. They face obstacles along the way, including rushing waters, a deep mine shaft, rats, the ominous Glume and the detestable creatures Spigot-Von-Glume and Orblock. Lee has periodic “other-worldly” experiences where she smells beer, hears Claire crying and feels eerily closer to her family. Along with the evil they bravely confront, there is bountiful good. Natural beauty abounds in the Heart of Joya, and the Middle Kingdom is blessed with a lavender sky and silvery water. Successfully outwitting Orblock, they enter the Treasure House, where a bright dove hovers above happy baby Claire, who remains frustratingly out of Lee’s reach. In a vivid, surprising conclusion, the scene changes to a hospital bed, where Lee is waking up from a coma. With her parents and brother nearby, she receives the heartbreaking news of Claire’s death. There is a disconnect here, as the mature issues Chester (Hidden Glory, 2007) presents are more suitable for older readers, yet the spacing and chapters will attract younger enthusiasts of fantasy. However, readers of all ages can appreciate Lee and Marvel’s ability to overcome impediments and reach their goals. The 13 short chapters are embellished with fine black-and-white sketches and softly hued illustrations grace the cover of this creative tale.
A transporting trip punctuated by absorbing twists and turns.Pub Date: July 15, 2008
ISBN: 978-1-59543-841-6
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Themes of freedom and responsibility twine between the lines of this short but heavy novel from the author of Because of Winn-Dixie (2000). Three months after his mother's death, Rob and his father are living in a small-town Florida motel, each nursing sharp, private pain. On the same day Rob has two astonishing encounters: first, he stumbles upon a caged tiger in the woods behind the motel; then he meets Sistine, a new classmate responding to her parents' breakup with ready fists and a big chip on her shoulder. About to burst with his secret, Rob confides in Sistine, who instantly declares that the tiger must be freed. As Rob quickly develops a yen for Sistine's company that gives her plenty of emotional leverage, and the keys to the cage almost literally drop into his hands, credible plotting plainly takes a back seat to character delineation here. And both struggle for visibility beneath a wagonload of symbol and metaphor: the real tiger (and the inevitable recitation of Blake's poem); the cage; Rob's dream of Sistine riding away on the beast's back; a mysterious skin condition on Rob's legs that develops after his mother's death; a series of wooden figurines that he whittles; a larger-than-life African-American housekeeper at the motel who dispenses wisdom with nearly every utterance; and the climax itself, which is signaled from the start. It's all so freighted with layers of significance that, like Lois Lowry's Gathering Blue (2000), Anne Mazer's Oxboy (1995), or, further back, Julia Cunningham's Dorp Dead (1965), it becomes more an exercise in analysis than a living, breathing story. Still, the tiger, "burning bright" with magnificent, feral presence, does make an arresting central image. (Fiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-7636-0911-0
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2001
BOOK TO SCREEN
Bishop’s spectacular photographs of the tiny red-eyed tree frog defeat an incidental text from Cowley (Singing Down the Rain, 1997, etc.). The frog, only two inches long, is enormous in this title; it appears along with other nocturnal residents of the rain forests of Central America, including the iguana, ant, katydid, caterpillar, and moth. In a final section, Cowley explains how small the frog is and aspects of its life cycle. The main text, however, is an afterthought to dramatic events in the photos, e.g., “But the red-eyed tree frog has been asleep all day. It wakes up hungry. What will it eat? Here is an iguana. Frogs do not eat iguanas.” Accompanying an astonishing photograph of the tree frog leaping away from a boa snake are three lines (“The snake flicks its tongue. It tastes frog in the air. Look out, frog!”) that neither advance nor complement the action. The layout employs pale and deep green pages and typeface, and large jewel-like photographs in which green and red dominate. The combination of such visually sophisticated pages and simplistic captions make this a top-heavy, unsatisfying title. (Picture book. 7-9)
Pub Date: March 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-590-87175-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1999
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