An engaging, lighthearted thriller that highlights a tween’s benevolence and resolve.
A girl’s beloved new puppet entangles her in a sketchy situation in this debut middle-grade novel.
Dora Jane “DJ” Owens, almost 12, and her Uncle Rem help a pastry chef transport boxes of high-quality grapes. Their destination is a primo local restaurant in their Massachusetts city, where DJ spots an apparently discarded two-foot puppet without strings sporting “a blood-red bandana.” She often treasures what others deem junk and asks the pastry chef if she can have this slightly battered, one-eyed puppet that she names Nefe (after Egyptian Queen Nefertiti). DJ promises to give the puppet “the love and care it needs.” On DJ and Rem’s 29-block walk home, they encounter people enchanted by Nefe, such as an antiques collector. But DJ won’t give her up; she wants to fix her and learn all she can about the puppet’s history. Unfortunately, Nefe has ties to some shady individuals who may be looking to seize her. DJ vows to protect Nefe, even if that means becoming involved in an ongoing police investigation and putting herself in potential danger. Lingis’ young hero is compassionate and a touch overdramatic. The girl instantly falls in love with Nefe and continuously talks about the puppet as if she’s a living being with genuine feelings. This does create a solid parallelism between DJ and Nefe—the puppet is “abused and abandoned,” not unlike DJ’s vaguely described circumstances that include a mother who has died and an alcoholic father not in the tween’s life. This engrossing book moves at a leisurely pace but builds tension with clear signs of the oppressive summer heat and a brewing hurricane off the East Coast. At the same time, there’s the possibility of lawbreakers in the mix, although this easygoing tale ensures that DJ is safe nearly all the time. She lives with a doting grandmother, her winsome uncle, and her sweet little brother while quickly charming almost everyone, from cops and that pastry chef to a former military helicopter pilot.
An engaging, lighthearted thriller that highlights a tween’s benevolence and resolve.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Oct. 22, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
After Castro’s takeover, nine-year-old Julian and his older brothers are sent away by their fearful parents via “Operation Pedro Pan” to a camp in Miami for Cuban-exile children. Here he discovers that a ruthless bully has essentially been put in charge. Julian is quicker-witted than his brothers or anyone else ever imagined, though, and with his inherent smarts, developing maturity and the help of child and adult friends, he learns to navigate the dynamics of the camp and surroundings and grows from the former baby of the family to independence and self-confidence. A daring rescue mission at the end of the novel will have readers rooting for Julian even as it opens his family’s eyes to his courage and resourcefulness. This autobiographical novel is a well-meaning, fast-paced and often exciting read, though at times the writing feels choppy. It will introduce readers to a not-so-distant period whose echoes are still felt today and inspire admiration for young people who had to be brave despite frightening and lonely odds. (Historical fiction. 9-12)
Pub Date: Aug. 3, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-59643-168-3
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: June 14, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2010
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