A quiet tale about finding your own voice.
A gifted wordsmith wonders if her opera-singer mom misses her career.
Fourth-grader Sylvie Bloom lives with her parents and younger brother on a Wyoming farm. Her mother was once an internationally renowned soprano but now sings only to cows, chickens, and sheep. This summer, talented Sylvie is assigned by her teacher to compose a daily column about local events for the town newspaper, employing any writing style she chooses. Through her warm, witty, and sharply observed comments and poetry, Sylvie affects neighbors’ lives and helps bring about important changes in her community. Meanwhile, an invitation for the whole family from a famous tenor, mom’s former duet partner, to his upcoming concert makes Sylvie worry that her mother unwillingly sacrificed her career for her kids and regrets abandoning her glamorous past. Hints from several friendly, wise adults that she already understands her mother’s motives but hasn’t yet acknowledged them to herself make Sylvie uneasy. This is a sweet, folksy, leisurely paced novel with gentle humor about family closeness and a young girl who discovers that practicing and sharing one’s talents is actually quite simple. Characters default to white. MacLachlan’s economic writing is sure and knowing, and her characters are likable and fully realized. Some readers may wonder, however, why it seemingly never before occurred to Sylvie just to ask her mother about her decision to forgo the stage.
A quiet tale about finding your own voice. (Fiction. 8-11)Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4814-7252-4
Page Count: 128
Publisher: McElderry
Review Posted Online: July 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2017
A fine emotional stretch within reach of the intended audience.
When siblings Jessie and Evan (The Lemonade War, 2007, and The Lemonade Crime, 2011) accompany their mother on the time-honored midwinter holiday visit to their grandmother’s home in the mountains, the changes are alarming.
Fire damage to the house and Grandma’s inability to recognize Evan are as disquieting as the disappearance of the iron bell, hung long ago by their grandmother on Lowell Hill and traditionally rung at the New Year. Davies keeps a tight focus on the children: Points of view switch between Evan, with his empathetic and emotional approach to understanding his world, and Jessie, for whom routine is essential and change a puzzle to be worked out. When Grandma ventures out into the snow just before twilight, it is Evan who realizes the danger and manages to find a way to rescue her. Jessie, determined to solve the mystery of the missing bell, enlists the help of Grandma's young neighbor Maxwell, with his unusual habitual gestures and his surprising ability to solve jigsaw puzzles. She is unprepared, however, for the terror of seeing the neighbor boys preparing a mechanical torture device to tear a live frog to pieces. Each of the siblings brings a personal resilience and heroism to the resolution.
A fine emotional stretch within reach of the intended audience. (Fiction. 8-11)Pub Date: May 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-547-56737-2
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: March 13, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The second installment in this spirited series is a hit.
A new baby coming means Ryan has lots of opportunities to grow love.
Ryan has so much to look forward to this summer—she is going to be a big sister, and she finally gets to go to church camp! But new adventures bring challenges, too. Ryan feels like the baby is taking forever to arrive, and with Mom on bed rest, she isn’t able to participate in the family’s typical summer activities. Ryan’s Dad is still working the late shift, which means he gets home and goes to bed when she and her older brother, Ray, are waking up, so their quality daddy-daughter time is limited to one day a week. When the time for camp finally arrives, Ryan is so worried about bugs, ghosts, and sharing a cabin that she wonders if she should go at all. Watson’s heroine is smart and courageous, bringing her optimistic attitude to any challenge she faces. Hard topics like family finances and complex relationships with friends are discussed in an age-appropriate way. Watson continues to excel at crafting a sense of place; she transports readers to Portland, Oregon, with an attention to detail that can only come from someone who has loved that city. Ryan, her family, and friends are Black, and occasional illustrations by Mata spotlight their joy and make this book shine.
The second installment in this spirited series is a hit. (Fiction. 8-10)Pub Date: April 27, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5476-0058-8
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: March 16, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2021
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