The belabored parental conflict, sugarcoated emotions and convenient plot details are cloying. The 12 recipes at the end are...
Can 10-year-old Poppy convince her parents she wants to be a baker and not a witch in yet another fantasy that blends magic and baking?
Poppy Pendle has inherited her magic from her Great-Granny Mabel, but her passion is baking. Her Dursley-like parents send her to the Ruthersfield Academy for young ladies with magic. She excels there, but she hates flying on her broomstick, using her wand and the teasing of the other girls. She runs away to the only place where she is happy, Patisserie Marie Claire, where she can create her own cookies and cakes. When this solution does not pan out, Poppy turns to the dark side of being a witch, hiding in a forsaken cottage and turning animals, her parents, police, birds and squirrels to stone. Her friend Charlie (a girl) and Marie Claire try various “sweet-tempting” plans to bring her back and finally succeed. Poppy and Marie Claire rehab the cottage and open a bakery. Numerous unexplained gaps in the fantasy logic crinkle the storyline, beginning with the “magic” of Poppy’s being born in the Patisserie (thus her passion) and ending with her turned-to-stone parents taking two years to thaw.
The belabored parental conflict, sugarcoated emotions and convenient plot details are cloying. The 12 recipes at the end are the best part; the rest is just half-baked. (Fantasy. 8-11)Pub Date: Sept. 4, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-4424-4679-3
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Paula Wiseman/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: July 17, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The author of the Pure Dead books applies the same ebullient and wacky sense of humor to a new series for younger readers. Lily’s new little sister, Daisy, is a witch. Lily knows this, because she can see when Daisy transforms herself into a dragonlet or Lily into a slug, and readers know it, because they have seen the Sisters of Hiss (Chin, Nose and poor Toad) make her so. But no one listens to Lily, and no one can see what Daisy does except Lily, so the gross, silly and extremely funny happenings remain a secret only readers share. Lily and Daisy’s befuddled parents, their older brother Jack (never seen without his earbuds) and a neighbor to their new home in the very North of Scotland whose parents named her Vivaldi also play parts, as does WayWoof, an odoriferous dog conjured often by Daisy, smelled by many but seen by very few. Gliori’s spot illustrations are spot-on, and various typefaces and footnotes are used to giggly effect. A second volume, Witch Baby and Me After Dark (ISBN: 978-0-55255-678-1), is also available, with more to come. (Magical adventure. 8-11)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-55255-676-7
Page Count: 248
Publisher: Corgi Children’s Books/Trafalgar
Review Posted Online: June 11, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2010
Three episodes—two of which were originally published in English separately in 2003—feature the diminutive, grey-skinned bloodsucker, his human friend Michael and a haunted-houseful of spectacularly lurid ghouls and creepies. In the first, lonely Little Vampire meets Michael after going to his school at night, sitting at his desk and doing his homework. In the second Michael receives kung fu lessons from an eldritch instructor in hopes of ridding himself of a bully. The third, titled “The Canine Defenders Club,” has the two buddies, with help from Little Vampire’s gruff, scarlet pooch Phantomato, breaking into a cosmetics-testing laboratory to rescue three captive dogs. All three tales progress in small, brightly colored panels packed with brisk action, sight gags and dialogue in miniscule type. Fans of Emmanuel Guibert’s Sardine in Outer Space series, which is illustrated by Sfar, will find his solo outings just as appealingly off-the-wall. Libraries that bought the first two chapters (which were issued by a different publisher) will need this as a value-added replacement. (Graphic novel. 9-11)
Pub Date: May 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-1-59643-233-8
Page Count: 92
Publisher: First Second/Roaring Brook
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2008
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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