An engaging premise caught between charm and severity that doesn’t fully deliver on either.
An unlikely companion helps a young girl navigate family troubles in Hunter’s middle-grade novel.
Eleven-year-old Sadie McAdams lives in the small town of Huntington, Alabama, with her older brother, Zac; her father, known simply as Coach for his role at the local high school; and her difficult, sharp-tongued mother, Olive. Just before the summer of 2008, during a school trip to a nearby swamp, Sadie discovers a tiny beaver separated from his dam. Fearing for his safety among the alligators, she hides him in her jacket, reassuring him, “You have me.” The beaver responds with a small “chirp,” and Sadie brings him home, naming him Ip. At the same time, her parents’ already toxic relationship reaches a breaking point, culminating in her father’s departure. Olive, growing increasingly volatile, demands that Sadie get rid of the animal (“We need a beaver like a cat needs pockets”), but Sadie resists, finding comfort in Ip even as her attempts to explain the situation at school devolve into chaos. As tensions escalate, Olive abandons the children to fend for themselves while she retreats to the beach, leaving Sadie to navigate her family’s collapse. Amid gossiping neighbors, suspicious authorities, and lurking hunters, Sadie must care for Ip while confronting life’s instability. Hunter has assembled all the elements of a sweet middle-grade novel, leavening the tension of a young girl’s difficult coming-of-age with the comfort of a cute animal companion. The Southern-tinged dialogue, especially in Olive’s retorts, adds color and texture to the prose. But the novel struggles to balance its tones; Olive’s harsh treatment and abandonment of her children, coupled with hints of serious trouble surrounding her father, suggest a much darker story than Hunter ultimately delivers, with a conclusion that feels too soft and easy for the borderline abuse Sadie endures. While the book has genuinely funny and endearing moments, particularly when Ip causes trouble, it never fully commits to either dark family trauma or lighthearted fun.
An engaging premise caught between charm and severity that doesn’t fully deliver on either.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: April 24, 2026
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
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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