An indomitable hero whips up whimsical bakery concoctions, with life lessons sprinkled throughout.
An inventive and self-confident 9-year-old jumps at the chance to trade her miserable orphan’s life for a home with a baker who’s lost his ability to see magic.
Bridget Baxter can pick a lock, escape a dungeon, and deploy her paraskirt to drift safely groundward, and she’s done all this and more during her nine years at Miss Acrid’s Orphanage for Errant Childs. Bridget is heartbroken when Miss Acrid engineers matters so that every other orphan—including her best friend, Tom—is adopted, leaving her all alone. A vivid dream propels Ernest Vanderpuff to Miss Acrid’s door to inquire about Bridget. When the vile Miss Acrid sends him away, Bridget sails intrepidly from the roof and departs in Mr. Vanderpuff’s car. Once ensconced at Vanderpuff’s Bake Shop, Bridget finds a soft bed, a friendly resident elf, and a mysterious Locked and Secret Door. Bridget’s madcap baking adventures result in lessons in trying your best and being a good friend. Miss Acrid’s somewhat cartoonish awfulness fits the story’s tone, as do Bridget’s many clever escapes and contraptions. This bighearted series opener works delightfully sophisticated vocabulary into every page, supplemented with humorous footnotes and punctuated with energetic line drawings. The ending promises a reunion with Tom and more adventures to come. Bridget and Miss Acrid read white; Mr. Vanderpuff and Tom are brown-skinned.
An indomitable hero whips up whimsical bakery concoctions, with life lessons sprinkled throughout. (baking game, cookie recipe) (Mystery. 8-12)Pub Date: Jan. 28, 2025
ISBN: 9780593754085
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: Oct. 11, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A page-turner with striking characters and a satisfying puzzle at its heart.
A boy who visits a little free library gets more than he bargained for when he becomes a sleuth caught up in the middle of his town’s most enduring mystery.
Ever since a tragic fire destroyed the Martinville Library, the town has been left without a place to borrow books. That is, until a little free library suddenly pops up, guarded by a fluffy orange cat named Mortimer. Fifth grader Evan McClelland selects two books from its shelves. Inside them he finds puzzling clues that lead him to chase down the real story behind the library fire. The book is told from multiple perspectives, including those of Evan, Mortimer, and ghost librarian Al, who perished in the blaze and is responsible for the upkeep of the little free library. Evan’s tenacious and curious character is relatable. His relationship with likable best friend Rafe, a brave, kind boy with overprotective parents, is easily one of the most endearing parts of the story. The puzzle over the library fire, a secret involving Evan’s family, a popular writer’s connection to Martinville, and the supernatural elements are presented in ways that are just right for middle-grade readers. The pacing is strong, and the twists and turns are satisfying even if perceptive readers may catch hints of the ultimate truth along the way. Physical descriptions of the human characters are largely absent.
A page-turner with striking characters and a satisfying puzzle at its heart. (Mystery. 8-12)Pub Date: Aug. 29, 2023
ISBN: 9781250838810
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: June 8, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2023
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
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