A fast-paced adventure with a protagonist that youngsters will feel lucky to have found.
In Ezpeleta’s touching young adult novel, 11-year-old Emily finds that the best therapy comes on four legs.
It’s 1998 and Emily, beautifully illustrated by Glenn, is struggling with her father’s death. A forest ranger brightens her life by giving her a dog, but mom Diana forces Emily to return the pooch. Diana also wants to punish Emily for lying to the ranger about her family’s willingness to accept the dog, but the ranger saves Emily by suggesting her “punishment” be working for him. The dog, Lucky, proves her loyalty by running away from her next home and back to Emily. And later Lucky protects Emily from various animals, including an upset skunk. Emily takes Lucky to the vet to get the stench washed off, but she doesn’t have enough money to pay for the procedure, so she takes a job working for the vet as well. These new jobs give Emily joy and friends. One day, Emily falls and badly injures herself while walking in the woods and sends Lucky to get help. Ezpeleta paces this part of the narrative well, effectively building tension and drawing her characters together. She is also skilled at showing how difficult loss can be, as illustrated by Emily casual hope that a car will run her down. The strongest example of the toll the father’s death has taken, however, is Diana’s alcoholism. Diana has the potential to be a great, complex character, but unfortunately she’s not fleshed out enough; her role is largely either to fight with or apologize to Emily. There’s an obvious sympathy for a widow, but it’s hard for readers to feel it when Diana is so cruel, telling Emily that she dresses like an orphan. Another problem comes from another Diana; Emily’s father loved the late Princess of Wales and she figures prominently in the story, but she will probably not mean much to the book’s audience, who were either not alive or just born the year Diana died. In general, the Diana connection feels overdone; Emily’s parents are named Charles and Diana and Diana watches over Emily when she is in trouble. Thankfully, Emily makes up for the novel’s flaws. She’s smart, passionate, quirky and caring—a kid’s ideal best friend.
A fast-paced adventure with a protagonist that youngsters will feel lucky to have found.Pub Date: May 22, 2011
ISBN: 978-1456589172
Page Count: 168
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: July 1, 2011
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Hugely entertaining, timely, and triumphant.
Robot Roz undertakes an unusual ocean journey to save her adopted island home in this third series entry.
When a poison tide flowing across the ocean threatens their island, Roz works with the resident creatures to ensure that they will have clean water, but the destruction of vegetation and crowding of habitats jeopardize everyone’s survival. Brown’s tale of environmental depredation and turmoil is by turns poignant, graceful, endearing, and inspiring, with his (mostly) gentle robot protagonist at its heart. Though Roz is different from the creatures she lives with or encounters—including her son, Brightbill the goose, and his new mate, Glimmerwing—she makes connections through her versatile communication abilities and her desire to understand and help others. When Roz accidentally discovers that the replacement body given to her by Dr. Molovo is waterproof, she sets out to seek help and discovers the human-engineered source of the toxic tide. Brown’s rich descriptions of undersea landscapes, entertaining conversations between Roz and wild creatures, and concise yet powerful explanations of the effect of the poison tide on the ecology of the island are superb. Simple, spare illustrations offer just enough glimpses of Roz and her surroundings to spark the imagination. The climactic confrontation pits oceangoing mammals, seabirds, fish, and even zooplankton against hardware and technology in a nicely choreographed battle. But it is Roz’s heroism and peacemaking that save the day.
Hugely entertaining, timely, and triumphant. (author’s note) (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2023
ISBN: 9780316669412
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2023
In an imaginative wordless picture book, Wiesner (illustrator of Kite Flyer, 1986) tours a dream world suggested by the books and objects in a boy's room. A series of transitions—linked by a map in the book that the boy was reading as he fell asleep—wafts him, pajama-clad, from an aerial view of hedge-bordered fields to a chessboard with chess pieces, some changing into their realistic counterparts (plus a couple of eerie roundheaded figures based on pawns that reappear throughout); next appear a castle; a mysterious wood in which lurks a huge, whimsical dragon; the interior of a neoclassical palace; and a series of fantastic landscapes that eventually transport the boy back to his own bed. Most interesting here are the visual links Wiesner uses in his journey's evolution; it's fun to trace the many details from page to page. There's a bow to Van Allsburg, and another to Sendak's In the Night Kitchen, but Wiesner's broad double-spreads of a dream world—whose muted colors suggest a silent space outside of time—have their own charm. Intriguing.
Pub Date: April 20, 1988
ISBN: 978-0-06-156741-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Lothrop, Lee & Shepard
Review Posted Online: Sept. 16, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1988
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