Riveting historical fiction that will enrich and delight the audience.
In this middle-grade novel, a girl learns about her Black Seminole heritage.
Mia Bryant isn’t quite sure where she’s going. Her mom and dad have put the 11-year-old and her best friend, Paisley, into the family car and are taking them on a surprise trip—despite the stormy South Florida weather. Mia and Paisley barely look up from their phones when the family arrives at a building in the middle of nowhere, but the world inside is captivating. The building houses a museum about Mia and her father’s ancestors, the Black Seminoles. The Native American tribe, based in Georgia and Florida, historically took in enslaved people on the run. Mia is a direct descendant of Talula (“one who leaps water”), the spirited daughter of an African American man and a Seminole woman, who lived with the tribe in Spanish Florida. Mia learns that Talula loved to chase dragonflies and spoke multiple languages but longed to trade her traditional female chores for those that involved riding horses and wielding a bow and arrow. As the War of 1812 began, the peace in Talula’s village was threatened—with her Black father a major target—and the girl’s adventurous warrior spirit was put to the ultimate test. Meanwhile, in the modern day, Mia is inspired by Talula’s story. But soon after Mia watches it on film, a natural disaster strikes and she must be braver than she ever imagined. Anne, a prolific author and Florida resident who is of African and Indigenous descent, presents a series opener that is both well researched and well written. The author engages the audience with a dual perspective narration that’s exciting, suspenseful, and socially conscious, though not preachy. Anne supplements the little-known history of the Black Seminoles depicted in the novel with a short glossary of terms and additional information on real-life people and events after the story concludes. Though Mia only appears at the tale’s beginning and end, she’s a relatable young girl who finds her inner strength. The bulk of the unique book belongs to Talula, whose heroic actions will inspire young and older readers.
Riveting historical fiction that will enrich and delight the audience.Pub Date: Feb. 26, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-73626-886-5
Page Count: 133
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: April 19, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs.
The Heffley family’s house undergoes a disastrous attempt at home improvement.
When Great Aunt Reba dies, she leaves some money to the family. Greg’s mom calls a family meeting to determine what to do with their share, proposing home improvements and then overruling the family’s cartoonish wish lists and instead pushing for an addition to the kitchen. Before bringing in the construction crew, the Heffleys attempt to do minor maintenance and repairs themselves—during which Greg fails at the work in various slapstick scenes. Once the professionals are brought in, the problems keep getting worse: angry neighbors, terrifying problems in walls, and—most serious—civil permitting issues that put the kibosh on what work’s been done. Left with only enough inheritance to patch and repair the exterior of the house—and with the school’s dismal standardized test scores as a final straw—Greg’s mom steers the family toward moving, opening up house-hunting and house-selling storylines (and devastating loyal Rowley, who doesn’t want to lose his best friend). While Greg’s positive about the move, he’s not completely uncaring about Rowley’s action. (And of course, Greg himself is not as unaffected as he wishes.) The gags include effectively placed callbacks to seemingly incidental events (the “stress lizard” brought in on testing day is particularly funny) and a lampoon of after-school-special–style problem books. Just when it seems that the Heffleys really will move, a new sequence of chaotic trouble and property destruction heralds a return to the status quo. Whew.
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs. (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 8-12)Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3903-3
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Nov. 18, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story.
A home-renovation project is interrupted by a family of wrens, allowing a young girl an up-close glimpse of nature.
Renata and her father enjoy working on upgrading their bathroom, installing a clawfoot bathtub, and cutting a space for a new window. One warm night, after Papi leaves the window space open, two wrens begin making a nest in the bathroom. Rather than seeing it as an unfortunate delay of their project, Renata and Papi decide to let the avian carpenters continue their work. Renata witnesses the birth of four chicks as their rosy eggs split open “like coats that are suddenly too small.” Renata finds at a crucial moment that she can help the chicks learn to fly, even with the bittersweet knowledge that it will only hasten their exits from her life. Rosen uses lively language and well-chosen details to move the story of the baby birds forward. The text suggests the strong bond built by this Afro-Latinx father and daughter with their ongoing project without needing to point it out explicitly, a light touch in a picture book full of delicate, well-drawn moments and precise wording. Garoche’s drawings are impressively detailed, from the nest’s many small bits to the developing first feathers on the chicks and the wall smudges and exposed wiring of the renovation. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at actual size.)
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: March 16, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-12320-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021
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