Uses questions of right and wrong to thoughtfully challenge a robust fantasy society.
Meesh and friends uncover a fissure at the heart of fairy and demon societies alike.
Meesh is training up her newfound guardian abilities with her grandma Chow, but danger is closing in. The werewolf pack, including Chai, is displaced when its forest home is bulldozed. Friends Nouna the fairy and Xavier the demon offer to help, but the cause of all this trouble shakes the foundations of everything they thought they knew about Ponderosa and Plumeria City. The first book dealt with prejudices between demons and fairies; this sequel exposes both societies’ unfair maligning of a third group. The characters grapple with uncomfortable feelings that arise from honestly facing the harm done by members of one’s community and setting aside ego in the interest of truly helping others. In the process, they demonstrate self-sacrifice, empathy, and forgiveness. Callbacks to the series opener are used for humorous and dramatic effect. There’s still plenty of room for magical showdowns, assistance from sentient trees, and the threat of a giant laser of doom, of course. The range of perspectives and the clear emotional expressions the characters wear mean readers will easily find someone among the cast to connect with. The story’s message of looking beyond merely assigning worthiness or blame to find a productive path forward is a powerful and affirming use of its fantasy world.
Uses questions of right and wrong to thoughtfully challenge a robust fantasy society. (process notes and sketches) (Graphic fantasy. 8-12)Pub Date: July 23, 2024
ISBN: 9780593372913
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: April 20, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2024
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 real gem.
A 10-year old girl learns to adjust to a strange town, makes some fascinating friends, and fills the empty space in her heart thanks to a big old stray dog in this lyrical, moving, and enchanting book by a fresh new voice.
India Opal’s mama left when she was only three, and her father, “the preacher,” is absorbed in his own loss and in the work of his new ministry at the Open-Arms Baptist Church of Naomi [Florida]. Enter Winn-Dixie, a dog who “looked like a big piece of old brown carpet that had been left out in the rain.” But, this dog had a grin “so big that it made him sneeze.” And, as Opal says, “It’s hard not to immediately fall in love with a dog who has a good sense of humor.” Because of Winn-Dixie, Opal meets Miss Franny Block, an elderly lady whose papa built her a library of her own when she was just a little girl and she’s been the librarian ever since. Then, there’s nearly blind Gloria Dump, who hangs the empty bottle wreckage of her past from the mistake tree in her back yard. And, Otis, oh yes, Otis, whose music charms the gerbils, rabbits, snakes and lizards he’s let out of their cages in the pet store. Brush strokes of magical realism elevate this beyond a simple story of friendship to a well-crafted tale of community and fellowship, of sweetness, sorrow and hope. And, it’s funny, too.
A real gem. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: March 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-7636-0776-2
Page Count: 182
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2000
SEEN & HEARD
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