by Laurence Yep & Joanne Ryder ; illustrated by Mary GrandPré ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 15, 2016
The story positively vibrates with fun.
Following A Dragon’s Guide to the Care and Feeding of Humans (2015), the saga of Miss Drake, a dragon living in San Francisco, continues as she tries to train her pet human in the ways of magic.
Told from the alternating perspectives of Miss Drake and her little human pet, Winnie, the story derives humor from their juxtaposition. Winnie, of course, sees Miss Drake as her pet, but the two never realize their different viewpoints. Even though she is a “natural” rather than a “magical,” Winnie gets to go to the wonderfully multiethnic, multispecies Spriggs Academy, where she will get an education like no other, with amazing teachers such as the real Sir Isaac Newton. However, as in all schools, Winnie will have to cope with a clique of hostile girls, here led by the niece of a famous sorceress. Lurking in the distant background is a threat from Winnie’s grandfather, a rich and selfish man who wants to take Winnie from her mom. If Winnie does not learn how to defeat him, her memory of Miss Drake will be wiped clean, and Miss Drake herself will have to leave her comfy San Francisco home. Can Winnie get some help from the wonderful, magical nesting Small Doll, who loves chocolate? Yep and Ryder keep the magic coming with their whimsical fantasy, enhanced by Grandpré’s sweet drawings.
The story positively vibrates with fun. (Fantasy. 8-12)Pub Date: March 15, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-385-39232-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Dec. 7, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2015
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by Wanda Coven ; illustrated by Anna Abramskaya ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 29, 2023
An entertaining and funny take on middle school drama with a light magical touch.
Heidi is a young witch attending middle school at Broomsfield Academy, a boarding school catering to both magical and nonmagical students.
Kids with magical powers must only use those skills for schoolwork, but Heidi can’t always control herself, like when she’s running late for class and needs to get dressed in a hurry. Her obsession with classmate Hunter McCann (aka Hunter McCutie) is threatening to take over her life. Melanie, her roommate and once her hometown enemy but now almost a friend, also has a crush on Hunter, who is actually a really nice boy. Heidi tries to hide her feelings from Melanie, but she pours out her heart to good friends Sunny and Annabelle. She also writes to Lucy, her BFF back home, about her situation. While Melanie is interested in flirting and makeup, Heidi’s closest friends give her good advice: “Just be yourself.” Nevertheless, Heidi keeps using witchcraft: first, growing long hair to attract Hunter (it backfires when her hair grows uncontrollably). She later attempts the love potion spell that inspires the title, hoping to isolate Hunter so that she can have him to herself. However, Heidi soon learns how harmful her behavior was. Readers looking for breezy fare will enjoy this second series installment, which uses varied size fonts, ample white space, and humorous digital grayscale illustrations. Most main characters present white.
An entertaining and funny take on middle school drama with a light magical touch. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Aug. 29, 2023
ISBN: 9781665937207
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Simon Spotlight
Review Posted Online: June 8, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2023
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by Wanda Coven ; illustrated by Anna Abramskaya
by Wanda Coven ; illustrated by Anna Abramskaya
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by Stephanie Watson ; illustrated by Sofia Moore ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 5, 2021
A vibrant celebration of art’s power to console and heal.
Zora, 12, shares her mother’s artistic gifts, but when grief and guilt lead her to destroy years of drawings, the results are astonishing.
Voom is Zora and her mom’s word for the artistic impulse that bubbles up inside. After disclosing her leukemia diagnosis to Zora and her sister, Frankie, Mom promised the girls she’d beat it. Ten months later, their far sicker mom is hospitalized in Pittsburgh, where the girls share their bus driver grandmother’s basement apartment. Mom continues to be optimistic and avoid acknowledging the possibility of death. Frustrated and needing to hear a realistic prognosis, Zora uses her art to show her mother the truth of how ill she looks. Later that night her mom dies—and Zora’s Voom goes away. When Grandma Wren disappoints Frankie on her seventh birthday, Zora’s guilt-fueled anger erupts. Over Frankie’s protests, Zora scribbles out her drawings until the scribbles fight back, pulling the girls into Pencilvania, a world where each of Zora’s creations lives. Most of her now-animated drawings welcome her—except for one scribbled-out horse who kidnaps Frankie. Guided by a seven-legged horse, the Zoracle (a composite of her early self-portraits), and other charming creations, Zora sets out to rescue Frankie and rediscover the wellspring of creativity that forms her mother’s legacy. Presumed White, the humans are well rounded and believable. Pencilvania’s inhabitants, conceived with humorous, metafictional whimsy, are enlivened with copious, inventive illustrations.
A vibrant celebration of art’s power to console and heal. (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Oct. 5, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-72821-590-7
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Sourcebooks Young Readers
Review Posted Online: Aug. 15, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2021
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