An inventive treat, with humor, heart, and a hint of magic.
A Russian girl adopts a very large, very unusual “puppy” in Maroney’s debut middle-grade novel.
Although 9-year-old Natasha loves her grandfather, Deda, she doesn’t like having to leave her little Russian village to stay with him in the impoverished, crime-ridden town of Horridgrad while her father is away on an engineering job. The town is a scary place, under the thumb of crime boss Ivan the Horrid and a corrupt mayor. So Natasha is delighted when Deda buys her a playful, snow-white puppy in the marketplace. She names him Mishka, and the animal grows at such an astonishing rate that some in town even wonder if he’s a dog at all. (The author’s clever hints about what Mishka is become more overt as the story progresses.) When Mishka helps to rescue children from an icy pond, stops a robbery, and keeps Ivan’s thugs away, he makes the town’s residents feel safer, and they begin to join together to improve their community. Irate Ivan, losing his grip on the town, schemes with the flunky mayor to get rid of Mishka. Maroney sets this delightful story in the present day, but gives it the unforced charm of an old-world folk tale, with moments of real hilarity, subtle suggestions of mystery and magic, and an inventive take on the theme of good triumphing over evil. Along the way, the author gets in a few sly jabs at politicians; for instance, the mayor takes a course in answering questions and afterward “could answer questions all day long and never say one thing that made any sense.” In another quirky moment, Ivan is disappointed that the hitman he hires turns out to be an animal rights activist. Natasha, Deda, and rambunctious Mishka are well-developed characters, as are several side players.
An inventive treat, with humor, heart, and a hint of magic.Pub Date: May 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-916118-11-9
Page Count: 291
Publisher: Talisman
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
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