An overstuffed horror story, but one that will both warm the heart and chill the spine.
Bowler’s (And the Children Shall Lead, 2014, etc.) YA novel pits brave, resourceful special needs teenagers against a whole shelf’s worth of supernatural scares.
Alex is an unusual student. Not only is he wheelchair-bound, but, like a lot of spina bifida sufferers, he’s a remedial reader. After he’s placed in a special class with his best friend, Roy, he faces mockery from other kids at Mark Twain High—particularly the cheerleaders and jocks, who call him a “crip” and “Roller Boy.” What they don’t know is that he possesses secret powers. Specifically, he’s a “spinner” who can mind-meld with others and take away their pain by absorbing it briefly into himself. Everything changes for Alex when, on his 15th birthday, he wakes from a dream in which he sees his teacher violently murdered. Arriving at school, he discovers that his dream was prophetic—and his teacher has been replaced by a sinister substitute. In the days that follow, he confronts knife-wielding attackers, eerie talismans, homicidal cats, a talking doll, malevolent men in suits, and a Faustian femme fatale. He also receives a long-lost message from his dead mother, warning him that “some say you will be the great peacemaker, and others the great destroyer.” There occasionally seem to be too many shadowy figures lurking around and too many cross-genre borrowings for the novel to establish a steady mood. However, Bowler effectively compensates for the overgrown garden of his imagination by communicating a thoughtful, sincere empathy for kids with disabilities. “We spend way too much time in this country focusing on what we perceive to be the weaknesses of others,” he writes in a prefatory note, and in this novel, he depicts his special needs kids not as victims but as real heroes. There are few worthier goals for a novelist, and his attempt here is largely successful.
An overstuffed horror story, but one that will both warm the heart and chill the spine.Pub Date: Aug. 5, 2015
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 439
Publisher: YoungDudes Publishing
Review Posted Online: June 5, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A joyful celebration.
Families in a variety of configurations play, dance, and celebrate together.
The rhymed verse, based on a song from the Noodle Loaf children’s podcast, declares that “Families belong / Together like a puzzle / Different-sized people / One big snuggle.” The accompanying image shows an interracial couple of caregivers (one with brown skin and one pale) cuddling with a pajama-clad toddler with light brown skin and surrounded by two cats and a dog. Subsequent pages show a wide array of families with members of many different racial presentations engaging in bike and bus rides, indoor dance parties, and more. In some, readers see only one caregiver: a father or a grandparent, perhaps. One same-sex couple with two children in tow are expecting another child. Smart’s illustrations are playful and expressive, curating the most joyful moments of family life. The verse, punctuated by the word together, frequently set in oversized font, is gently inclusive at its best but may trip up readers with its irregular rhythms. The song that inspired the book can be found on the Noodle Loaf website.
A joyful celebration. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-22276-8
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Rise x Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: Nov. 26, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2020
Continuing to find inspiration in the work of Virginia Lee Burton, Munro Leaf and other illustrators of the past, Long (The Little Engine That Could, 2005) offers an aw-shucks friendship tale that features a small but hardworking tractor (“putt puff puttedy chuff”) with a Little Toot–style face and a big-eared young descendant of Ferdinand the bull who gets stuck in deep, gooey mud. After the big new yellow tractor, crowds of overalls-clad locals and a red fire engine all fail to pull her out, the little tractor (who had been left behind the barn to rust after the arrival of the new tractor) comes putt-puff-puttedy-chuff-ing down the hill to entice his terrified bovine buddy successfully back to dry ground. Short on internal logic but long on creamy scenes of calf and tractor either gamboling energetically with a gaggle of McCloskey-like geese through neutral-toned fields or resting peacefully in the shade of a gnarled tree (apple, not cork), the episode will certainly draw nostalgic adults. Considering the author’s track record and influences, it may find a welcome from younger audiences too. (Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-399-25248-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2009
SEEN & HEARD
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