Amusing, if a little clunky.
Eleven-year-old witch Della Dupree must muster all her courage when she’s stranded in the 13th century.
If only Della were brave enough to stand up against the school bullies. But Della knows that if she does, the mean girls will turn on her next. It’s already hard enough to share a name with the famous Della Dupree, who founded Ruthersfield Academy in 1223 to educate witches. Della lives in a Britain where nonmagical people know about and love witches, and her own nonwitchy family is supportive. But what if Della were to travel back in time to meet the historic Della, and what if she were to learn what it’s like to live in a time when witches are hated and feared? Della’s soon stranded in 1223, having lost the magical necklace that enabled her spur-of-the-moment illicit jaunt into the past. As Lowe writes it, history smells atrocious and features hideous food—one particularly “nasty pottage” prompts Della to make a quick magical lasagna, and a disgusting pheasant stew leads her to magic up a chicken curry—but the witch girls Della meets are lovely. She just wishes she were brave enough to save them from the dungeon. In the mildly anachronistic past of her apparently all-white village of Potts Bottom, Della finds her spunk. Slightly awkward prose with odd explanatory asides distracts from both humor and pacing, but scenes in which these medieval characters first experience modern food are mouthwatering.
Amusing, if a little clunky. (recipes, crafts) (Fantasy. 8-11)Pub Date: Aug. 4, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5344-4367-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Paula Wiseman/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 2, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
However the compelling fitness of theme and event and the apt but unexpected imagery (the opening sentences compare the...
At a time when death has become an acceptable, even voguish subject in children's fiction, Natalie Babbitt comes through with a stylistic gem about living forever.
Protected Winnie, the ten-year-old heroine, is not immortal, but when she comes upon young Jesse Tuck drinking from a secret spring in her parents' woods, she finds herself involved with a family who, having innocently drunk the same water some 87 years earlier, haven't aged a moment since. Though the mood is delicate, there is no lack of action, with the Tucks (previously suspected of witchcraft) now pursued for kidnapping Winnie; Mae Tuck, the middle aged mother, striking and killing a stranger who is onto their secret and would sell the water; and Winnie taking Mae's place in prison so that the Tucks can get away before she is hanged from the neck until....? Though Babbitt makes the family a sad one, most of their reasons for discontent are circumstantial and there isn't a great deal of wisdom to be gleaned from their fate or Winnie's decision not to share it.
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1975
ISBN: 0312369816
Page Count: 164
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: April 13, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1975
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
Move over Ramona Quimby, Portland has another neighbor you have to meet!
Ryan Hart is navigating the fourth grade and all its challenges with determination.
Her mom named her Ryan because it means “king,” and she wanted Ryan to feel powerful every time she heard her name; Ryan knows it means she is a leader. So when changes occur or disaster strikes, budding chef Ryan does her best to find the positive and “make sunshine.” When her dad is laid off from the post office, the family must make adjustments that include moving into a smaller house, selling their car, and changing how they shop for groceries. But Ryan gets to stay at Vernon Elementary, and her mom still finds a way to get her the ingredients she needs to practice new recipes. Her older brother, Ray, can be bossy, but he finds little ways to support her, especially when she is down—as does the whole family. Each episodic chapter confronts Ryan with a situation; intermittently funny, frustrating, and touching, they should be familiar and accessible to readers, as when Ryan fumbles her Easter speech despite careful practice. Ryan, her family, and friends are Black, and Watson continues to bring visibility to both Portland, Oregon, generally and its Black community specifically, making another wonderful contribution that allows Black readers to see themselves and all readers to find a character they can love.
Move over Ramona Quimby, Portland has another neighbor you have to meet! (Fiction. 8-10)Pub Date: April 28, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5476-0056-4
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: Jan. 20, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2020
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