An entertaining tale of angst, good dogs, and satisfying achievement.
Ariel, smart but a bit plain, is her mother’s constant disappointment.
She can’t begin to reach the bar set by her gorgeous, blonde older sister, Gloria. Their mother has big Hollywood plans for Gloria, and Ariel is, sadly, just in the way. So when she discovers a lost and frantic German shepherd she calls Duke and meets Staff Sgt. Josephina Martínez, a former K-9 handler who’s retired to a lonely cabin in the Blue Ridge Mountains to recover from her PTSD, they become more than just solace to the frustrated eighth grader. Ariel finally has a supportive adult in her life, and she has a mission: to help Duke overcome his fears. Since Gloria has been selected to be one of the princesses of the huge annual parade, Ariel decides to train Duke to dance among the marchers, at first hoping to upstage Gloria but later because she’s determined to have pride in her own and Duke’s abilities. Then she acquires six other dogs from the local animal shelter—not quite stolen, but nearly so. All of this combines to create a triumphant parade performance but also a major public confrontation with her nasty mother and sister. Ariel’s narration initially feels more authorial than young teen, but later in the tale she hits a more believable stride. With the exception of Ariel, characters seem rather predictable. Ariel and her family are white; Sgt. Josie is Puerto Rican.
An entertaining tale of angst, good dogs, and satisfying achievement. (author’s note) (Fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Aug. 18, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-06-243000-7
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 2, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A rollicking, ripping tall tale with ecological subtext.
When rogue feral hogs and a greedy developer threaten to wipe out Sugar Man Swamp, two raccoons know it’s time to rouse the legendary Sugar Man.
Mythic Sugar Man has reigned over Sugar Man Swamp for a “gazillion yesterdays.” Raccoons Bingo and J’miah descend from a line of Official Scouts Sugar Man designated to watch over the swamp and alert him in an emergency. Twelve-year-old Chap has also grown up along the swamp, where his mother operates Paradise Pies Café. Like his recently deceased grandfather, Chap cherishes the swamp. When the swamp’s sleazy owner, Sunny Boy Beaucoup, threatens to evict them to convert the swamp into Gator World Wrestling Arena and Theme Park, Chap takes his grandfather’s place to preserve what he loves. When Bingo and J’miah discover feral hogs descending on the swamp to pulverize the native sugarcane, they risk Sugar Man’s wrath and wake him. Set in the east Texas bayou, like The Underneath (2008) and Keeper (2010), this playful tale teems with bayou flora, fauna and folklore. In a honeyed dialect, the omnipresent narrator directly engages readers, ricocheting between the hilarious human and critter dramas to a riotous finale.
A rollicking, ripping tall tale with ecological subtext. (art not seen) (Fantasy. 10-14)Pub Date: July 23, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4424-2105-9
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: April 13, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2013
Although Stevenson leaves the family’s future up in the air, she gives Wolf a victory that will resonate with readers
Convinced that doom is imminent, Wolf’s free-spirit mom uproots the family for a quixotic cross-country consciousness-raising campaign to save the honeybees.
Having researched the school project that set Jade, his mom, in motion, 12-year-old Wolf knows that the bees are in danger, but he’d rather stay put and go to school, and he really doesn’t want to wear the stupid bee costume. Wolf‘s perpetually angry teenage stepsister, Violet, figures out how to bring boyfriend Ty along despite severe parental disapproval. And while 5-year-old Saffron seems perfectly happy to dance around in her bee outfit, her withdrawn twin, Whisper, has stopped talking entirely. Spurred by both their own misery and Whisper’s distress, Wolf and Violet decide they have to take the future Jade says they won’t have into their own hands. Stevenson takes a setup that could easily devolve into farce and focuses instead on the kids’ very real emotions. Wolf is a terrific narrator, more self-aware than the average 12-year-old but in the end just as ready to rationalize selfishness, however necessary, as his mother is. The twins, Violet, and the unexpectedly helpful Ty emerge as three-dimensional characters, as do some of the adults the family encounters. Both Jade and Wolf’s stepfather, however, are less successfully drawn, the former cartoonishly monomaniacal and the latter a cipher.
Although Stevenson leaves the family’s future up in the air, she gives Wolf a victory that will resonate with readers . (Fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Sept. 8, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4598-0834-8
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Orca
Review Posted Online: June 28, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2015
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