This wonderful depiction of adolescence is as winsome as it is profound.
A girl who’s endured tragedy is convinced that winning a talent show will bring much-needed grace to her life in Hourihan’s debut middle-grade novel.
It’s no surprise that 11-year-old Montura “Monty” Moriarty misses her cherished late mother. That could be why she’s failing her term at All Saints School in Springfield, Massachusetts. Monty doesn’t believe she has any talent to show off at the school’s upcoming talent show, but she changes her tune when the event’s flyer promises that grace—the stuff needed to get your soul to Heaven—will “befall” the winning four-person team. Now, she must persuade three fellow students to each recite a poem while dressed as a celebrated poet. Her choices aren’t ideal: her reluctant best friend Danny, resident bad boy Leon (Monty is crushing on him so hard that he may prove distracting), and Sandra, whom Monty initially picks because she’s Danny’s crush. Monty grows close to Sandra, a warmhearted girl who suffers from arthritis, the “kind that only kids get.” But Sandra’s worsening condition soon dredges up memories of Monty’s mother that Monty simply doesn’t want to remember. Hourihan’s story boasts an endearing, sympathetic protagonist. Monty constantly questions things around her, like why it seems that only men have places named after them. She looks at herself, too, and strives to amend any missteps she’s made on her way to earning grace. Monty is so charming (and Hourihan’s prose is so pithy) that all of her exchanges with others shine, from Danny and Sandra to the school’s critical nuns. The best scenes involve Monty’s Lebanese/French “upstairs relatives” at home, whose scenes bring an endlessly entertaining fusion of overlapping languages and food aromas. They serve as a reminder that, while Monty is hurting, she’s surrounded by goofy, always lovable family and friends. Graham’s black-and-white artwork creates sublime narrative snapshots, both ‘real’ (the town sign) and imagined (a flying elephant).
This wonderful depiction of adolescence is as winsome as it is profound.Pub Date: Sept. 16, 2024
ISBN: 9781665760195
Page Count: 184
Publisher: Archway Publishing
Review Posted Online: Nov. 20, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
Ordinary kids in an extraordinary setting: still a recipe for bright achievements and belly laughs.
Rejoice! 25 years later, Wayside School is still in session, and the children in Mrs. Jewls’ 30th-floor classroom haven’t changed a bit.
The surreal yet oddly educational nature of their misadventures hasn’t either. There are out-and-out rib ticklers, such as a spelling lesson featuring made-up words and a determined class effort to collect 1 million nail clippings. Additionally, mean queen Kathy steps through a mirror that turns her weirdly nice and she discovers that she likes it, a four-way friendship survives a dumpster dive after lost homework, and Mrs. Jewls makes sure that a long-threatened “Ultimate Test” allows every student to show off a special talent. Episodic though the 30 new chapters are, there are continuing elements that bind them—even to previous outings, such as the note to an elusive teacher Calvin has been carrying since Sideways Stories From Wayside School (1978) and finally delivers. Add to that plenty of deadpan dialogue (“Arithmetic makes my brain numb,” complains Dameon. “That’s why they’re called ‘numb-ers,’ ” explains D.J.) and a wild storm from the titular cloud that shuffles the school’s contents “like a deck of cards,” and Sachar once again dishes up a confection as scrambled and delicious as lunch lady Miss Mush’s improvised “Rainbow Stew.” Diversity is primarily conveyed in the illustrations.
Ordinary kids in an extraordinary setting: still a recipe for bright achievements and belly laughs. (Fiction. 9-11)Pub Date: March 3, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-06-296538-7
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Sept. 28, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2019
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