A heartfelt story that’s filled with adventure.
Twelve-year-old Lana Parker has been warned away from the marsh bordering her neighborhood in Galveston, Texas, but an intriguing discovery leads her there anyway.
Lana has little in common with her fraternal twin, Gracie, and younger sister, Duck. Since their dad died of a virus two years ago, her family members have retreated: Mom into listening to audiobooks and writing poetry, Gracie into K-pop music, and Duck into video games. With her best friends gone for the summer and her grandmother in a nursing home following a recent stroke, Lana is bored. She escapes to Nana’s nearly empty house, where she discovers a mysterious golden key and a letter addressed to her father, admonishing him to “do your duty. The Alligator Witch is always there.” Most people regard the witch as a legend, but Dad believed in her, so Lana decides to see the instructions through. But when she enters the marsh seeking the witch, her mother and sisters face unintended magical consequences. Lana’s sincere first-person narrative is interspersed with sections following early-20th-century New York City teen spiritualist Zofia Kowalczyk and another pair of fraternal twins who lived in Galveston during the devastating Big Storm of 1900. This low fantasy blends historical and contemporary elements with magic in a storyline that offers a healthy exploration of dealing with grief. The storytelling in this compact tale will sustain readers’ interest before wrapping up with a satisfying resolution. Main characters read white.
A heartfelt story that’s filled with adventure. (Fantasy. 8-12)Pub Date: May 20, 2025
ISBN: 9780823457915
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: March 8, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often...
A successful juvenile by the beloved New Yorker writer portrays a farm episode with an imaginative twist that makes a poignant, humorous story of a pig, a spider and a little girl.
Young Fern Arable pleads for the life of runt piglet Wilbur and gets her father to sell him to a neighbor, Mr. Zuckerman. Daily, Fern visits the Zuckermans to sit and muse with Wilbur and with the clever pen spider Charlotte, who befriends him when he is lonely and downcast. At the news of Wilbur's forthcoming slaughter, campaigning Charlotte, to the astonishment of people for miles around, spins words in her web. "Some Pig" comes first. Then "Terrific"—then "Radiant". The last word, when Wilbur is about to win a show prize and Charlotte is about to die from building her egg sac, is "Humble". And as the wonderful Charlotte does die, the sadness is tempered by the promise of more spiders next spring.
The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often informative as amusing, and the whole tenor of appealing wit and pathos will make fine entertainment for reading aloud, too.Pub Date: Oct. 15, 1952
ISBN: 978-0-06-026385-0
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1952
PERSPECTIVES
SEEN & HEARD
A pleasing premise for book lovers.
A fantasy-loving bookworm makes a wonderful, terrible bargain.
When sixth grader Poppy Woodlock’s historic preservationist parents move the family to the Oregon coast to work on the titular stately home, Poppy’s sure she’ll find magic. Indeed, the exiled water nymph in the manor’s ruined swimming pool grants a wish, but: “Magic isn’t free. It cosssts.” The price? Poppy’s favorite book, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. In return she receives Sampson, a winged lion cub who is everything Poppy could have hoped for. But she soon learns that the nymph didn’t take just her own physical book—she erased Narnia from Poppy’s world. And it’s just the first loss: Soon, Poppy’s grandmother’s journal’s gone, then The Odyssey, and more. The loss is heartbreaking, but Sampson’s a wonderful companion, particularly as Poppy’s finding middle school a tough adjustment. Hartman’s premise is beguiling—plenty of readers will identify with Poppy, both as a fellow bibliophile and as a kid struggling to adapt. Poppy’s repeatedly expressed faith that unveiling Sampson will bring some sort of vindication wears thin, but that does not detract from the central drama. It’s a pity that the named real-world books Poppy reads are notably lacking in diversity; a story about the power of literature so limited in imagination lets both itself and readers down. Main characters are cued White; there is racial diversity in the supporting cast. Chapters open with atmospheric spot art. (This review has been updated to reflect the final illustrations.)
A pleasing premise for book lovers. (Fantasy. 9-12)Pub Date: May 2, 2023
ISBN: 9780316448222
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
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