Reads like a rough draft of a potentially compelling tale
Newcomer Petersen uses children’s fantasy to shine a light on esoteric and New Age beliefs.
Stella Merriss’ parents keep their small family constantly on the move. Amid yet another escape, this time via boat, they are lost at sea and she is left to seek her own safety. Fortunately, the universe is guiding her to her ultimate destination, to become an apprentice angel at the Citadel. As she learns more about the Laws of the Universe, she also learns more about herself and her identity as both angel and mermaid just in time to face off against would-be despot Sylvain. The universal laws that govern Stella’s world share much in common with the teachings of The Kybalion and other hermetic philosophical teachings. Though the Chronicles of Narnia and His Dark Materials, among others, have used children’s fantasy to great effect in introducing a particular worldview, both do so with such nuance that even nonadherents can enjoy the worldbuilding. Petersen has no such subtlety. Here the moral teachings frequently clobber readers and nearly strangle the plot. This, along with awkward use of colloquial American English within the fantasy realm and uneven pacing, especially in the beginning, makes for an unpolished read. While there is certainly an audience for spiritual but not religious books for children, Stella’s story is wanting. The book adheres to the white default.
Reads like a rough draft of a potentially compelling tale . (Fantasy. 8-12)Pub Date: May 7, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-58270-678-8
Page Count: 312
Publisher: Beyond Words Publishing
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2019
An inspirational exploration of caring among parent, teacher and child—one of Grimes’ best. (Poetry. 8-12)
In this delightfully spare narrative in verse, Coretta Scott King Award–winning Grimes examines a marriage’s end from the perspective of a child.
Set mostly in the wake of her father’s departure, only-child Gabby reveals with moving clarity in these short first-person poems the hardship she faces relocating with her mother and negotiating the further loss of a good friend while trying to adjust to a new school. Gabby has always been something of a dreamer, but when she begins study in her new class, she finds her thoughts straying even more. She admits: “Some words / sit still on the page / holding a story steady. / … / But other words have wings / that wake my daydreams. / They … / tickle my imagination, / and carry my thoughts away.” To illustrate Gabby’s inner wanderings, Grimes’ narrative breaks from the present into episodic bursts of vivid poetic reminiscence. Luckily, Gabby’s new teacher recognizes this inability to focus to be a coping mechanism and devises a daily activity designed to harness daydreaming’s creativity with a remarkably positive result for both Gabby and the entire class. Throughout this finely wrought narrative, Grimes’ free verse is tight, with perfect breaks of line and effortless shifts from reality to dream states and back.
An inspirational exploration of caring among parent, teacher and child—one of Grimes’ best. (Poetry. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-59078-985-8
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Wordsong/Boyds Mills
Review Posted Online: July 16, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2013
Nellie Bly’s contemporary namesake does her proud.
Eleven-year-old Nellie’s investigative reporting leads her to solve a mystery, start a newspaper, and learn key lessons about growing up.
Nellie’s voice is frank and often funny—and always full of information about newspapers. She tells readers of the first meeting of her newspaper club and then says, “But maybe I’m burying the lede…what Dad calls it when a reporter puts the most interesting part…in the middle or toward the end.” (This and other journalism vocabulary is formally defined in a closing glossary.) She backtracks to earlier that summer, when she and her mother were newly moved into a house next to her mother’s best friend in rural Bear Creek, Maine. Nellie explains that the newspaper that employed both of her parents in “the city” had folded soon after her father left for business in Asia. When Bear Creek Park gets closed due to mysterious, petty crimes, Nellie feels compelled to investigate. She feels closest to her dad when on the park’s swings, and she is more comfortable interviewing adults than befriending peers. Getting to know a plethora of characters through Nellie’s eyes is as much fun as watching Nellie blossom. Although astute readers will have guessed the park’s vandalizers, they are rewarded by observing Nellie’s fact-checking process. A late revelation about Nellie’s father does not significantly detract from this fully realized story of a young girl adjusting admirably to new circumstances. Nellie and her mother present white; secondary characters are diverse.
Nellie Bly’s contemporary namesake does her proud. (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: March 10, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-7624-9685-3
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Running Press
Review Posted Online: Nov. 23, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
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