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LITTLE WITCH HAZEL

A YEAR IN THE FOREST

More Mosswood, please.

A miniature witch tends to a forest over the course of a year.

Little Witch Hazel lives in Mosswood Forest in a home at the base of a tree trunk. Her distinctive personality is fleshed out vividly throughout this thoroughly satisfying set of four stories, one for each season. Stoic, diligent, and giving, Hazel nurtures an orphaned owl egg in spring; is convinced by friends to take a day off in summer; helps a lonely troll in autumn; and is saved from a storm in winter by Otis, the owl she once mothered. The detailed, evocative worldbuilding will have readers lingering. They’ll meet a friendly and funny (especially the chipmunk with the toothache) community of anthropomorphic creatures, such as Wendell the sailing frog and Mousepappa (who wears the apron and takes care of the babies). Many creatures are fantastical (dryads, goblins). Refreshingly, nothing is sanitized: Little Witch Hazel is not gaunt and whimsical; she’s curvaceous, sturdy, and strong. She even has hairy legs; she has more important things to do than shave, such as serve as midwife to Mrs. Rabbit. The writing is lush and lyrical (“milky clouds…hung low”), and the textured, earth-toned illustrations expertly capture Hazel’s world, both cozy (her tiny home) and gloriously wild (the forest she tends to). Hazel is White; the “beasts of all shapes and sizes” readers meet include fantastical creatures of color and one who uses a wheelchair. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

More Mosswood, please. (Picture book. 4-10)

Pub Date: Sept. 21, 2021

ISBN: 978-0-7352-6489-2

Page Count: 96

Publisher: Tundra Books

Review Posted Online: June 28, 2021

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2021

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THE HALLOWEEN TREE

Just the thing for anyone with a Grinch-y tree of their own in the yard.

A grouchy sapling on a Christmas tree farm finds that there are better things than lights and decorations for its branches.

A Grinch among the other trees on the farm is determined never to become a sappy Christmas tree—and never to leave its spot. Its determination makes it so: It grows gnarled and twisted and needle-less. As time passes, the farm is swallowed by the suburbs. The neighborhood kids dare one another to climb the scary, grumpy-looking tree, and soon, they are using its branches for their imaginative play, the tree serving as a pirate ship, a fort, a spaceship, and a dragon. But in winter, the tree stands alone and feels bereft and lonely for the first time ever, and it can’t look away from the decorated tree inside the house next to its lot. When some parents threaten to cut the “horrible” tree down, the tree thinks, “Not now that my limbs are full of happy children,” showing how far it has come. Happily for the tree, the children won’t give up so easily, and though the tree never wished to become a Christmas tree, it’s perfectly content being a “trick or tree.” Martinez’s digital illustrations play up the humorous dichotomy between the happy, aspiring Christmas trees (and their shoppers) and the grumpy tree, and the diverse humans are satisfyingly expressive.

Just the thing for anyone with a Grinch-y tree of their own in the yard. (Picture book. 4-8)

Pub Date: Aug. 6, 2019

ISBN: 978-1-4926-7335-4

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky

Review Posted Online: July 13, 2019

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2019

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ADA TWIST AND THE PERILOUS PANTS

From the Questioneers series , Vol. 2

Adventure, humor, and smart, likable characters make for a winning chapter book.

Ada Twist’s incessant stream of questions leads to answers that help solve a neighborhood crisis.

Ada conducts experiments at home to answer questions such as, why does Mom’s coffee smell stronger than Dad’s coffee? Each answer leads to another question, another hypothesis, and another experiment, which is how she goes from collecting data on backyard birds for a citizen-science project to helping Rosie Revere figure out how to get her uncle Ned down from the sky, where his helium-filled “perilous pants” are keeping him afloat. The Questioneers—Rosie the engineer, Iggy Peck the architect, and Ada the scientist—work together, asking questions like scientists. Armed with knowledge (of molecules and air pressure, force and temperature) but more importantly, with curiosity, Ada works out a solution. Ada is a recognizable, three-dimensional girl in this delightfully silly chapter book: tirelessly curious and determined yet easily excited and still learning to express herself. If science concepts aren’t completely clear in this romp, relationships and emotions certainly are. In playful full- and half-page illustrations that break up the text, Ada is black with Afro-textured hair; Rosie and Iggy are white. A closing section on citizen science may inspire readers to get involved in science too; on the other hand, the “Ode to a Gas!” may just puzzle them. Other backmatter topics include the importance of bird study and the threat palm-oil use poses to rainforests.

Adventure, humor, and smart, likable characters make for a winning chapter book. (Fiction. 6-9)

Pub Date: April 16, 2019

ISBN: 978-1-4197-3422-9

Page Count: 144

Publisher: Amulet/Abrams

Review Posted Online: Jan. 27, 2019

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2019

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