A creative, attention-grabbing fantasy exploring themes of classism and love and desperation.
To a girl raised in captivity, a hidden city of winged people is awe-inspiring—at first.
In Hopkins’ series opening debut, 11-year-old Astrid Crossley, who has “paper-white” skin and “white-blonde” hair, knows no life beyond the dark rhubarb shed where she’s kept safe from unspecified dangers by her mother. Her desperation to see the stars leads to her discovery by Mrs. Wairi, one of the winged Librae. Claiming Astrid is a Librae on the cusp of fledging, Mrs. Wairi whisks her away to a fantastical city above London, which is invisible to unauthorized people. But something is rotten in London Overhead. At Starminster school, unfledged children are treated as lesser. When they stage a protest, the ruthless Headmaster expels them, then exploits them as free labor. Meanwhile, Mama mobilizes London Underfoot to find Astrid, who learns that other children are missing—but where are they? Astrid is a resilient, poignant character who’s struggling with big questions. How could her loving Mama steal her childhood? Why do London Overhead’s mysterious Luddite Overlords treat some citizens so cruelly? Kurtz’ opening two-page spread sketches the city of stone, marble, and flower-shaped buildings hovering above London, but readers may wish for additional illustrations to clarify aspects of the intricately imagined world described in Hopkins’ vivid prose. The story features a multicultural cast, and an appendix describes the birds from around the world whose wings appear on various Librae.
A creative, attention-grabbing fantasy exploring themes of classism and love and desperation. (Fantasy. 8-11)Pub Date: July 28, 2026
ISBN: 9780008812225
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Kane Miller
Review Posted Online: April 20, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2026
However the compelling fitness of theme and event and the apt but unexpected imagery (the opening sentences compare the...
At a time when death has become an acceptable, even voguish subject in children's fiction, Natalie Babbitt comes through with a stylistic gem about living forever.
Protected Winnie, the ten-year-old heroine, is not immortal, but when she comes upon young Jesse Tuck drinking from a secret spring in her parents' woods, she finds herself involved with a family who, having innocently drunk the same water some 87 years earlier, haven't aged a moment since. Though the mood is delicate, there is no lack of action, with the Tucks (previously suspected of witchcraft) now pursued for kidnapping Winnie; Mae Tuck, the middle aged mother, striking and killing a stranger who is onto their secret and would sell the water; and Winnie taking Mae's place in prison so that the Tucks can get away before she is hanged from the neck until....? Though Babbitt makes the family a sad one, most of their reasons for discontent are circumstantial and there isn't a great deal of wisdom to be gleaned from their fate or Winnie's decision not to share it.
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1975
ISBN: 0312369816
Page Count: 164
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: April 13, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1975
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
Certain to elicit both gales of giggles and winces of sympathy (not to mention recognition) from young readers.
First volume of a planned three, this edited version of an ongoing online serial records a middle-school everykid’s triumphs and (more often) tribulations through the course of a school year.
Largely through his own fault, mishaps seem to plague Greg at every turn, from the minor freak-outs of finding himself permanently seated in class between two pierced stoners and then being saddled with his mom for a substitute teacher, to being forced to wrestle in gym with a weird classmate who has invited him to view his “secret freckle.” Presented in a mix of legible “hand-lettered” text and lots of simple cartoon illustrations with the punch lines often in dialogue balloons, Greg’s escapades, unwavering self-interest and sardonic commentary are a hoot and a half.
Certain to elicit both gales of giggles and winces of sympathy (not to mention recognition) from young readers. (Fiction. 9-11)Pub Date: April 1, 2007
ISBN: 0-8109-9313-9
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2007
SEEN & HEARD
PERSPECTIVES
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