A diverting combination of ecology and spirituality, despite a few snags.
In this second middle-grade novel in a series, a girl learns more about her shared destiny with a hawk.
Claire, who’s nearly 12, moved to a small town in Pennsylvania six months ago. She’s always had a long-standing, special connection with birds, but it deepened after she met Jerry, a 71-year-old Earth wizard and Guardian of the Woods. Through him, she discovered that her fate is bound to that of Ku-Khain, a female red-tailed hawk. Jerry believes that Claire must learn to enter the Now, a spiritual state “outside of time and space,” to receive a message from Ku-Khain, and although he insists that entering the Now is “as natural as breathing,” Claire doubts herself. Billionaire ornithologist Robert Crawley dreams of adding the nearly extinct ivory-billed woodpecker to his life list of personally identified birds, so Claire offers her special help (“Jerry says I keep birds in my heart and that makes them come to me”). Crawley takes Claire and two of her friends, Victor and Billy,with him on an expedition to find the woodpecker in White River National Wildlife Refuge in Arkansas, where the bird was last seen. Although not everything goes as planned, Claire moves further along in her spiritual journey. As in the previous volume, An Odd Bird (2020), Butler draws well-informed connections with environmental issues. This sequel presents Claire with several obstacles that tie in nicely with her age, such as the fact that she has a distracting crush on the ornithologist. Similarly, Claire isn’t an automatic virtuoso but is appropriately fledglinglike in how she tries to master her abilities. A few narrative obstacles feel contrived, though, as when Butler withholds important information for flimsy reasons. The prose style can also be awkward at times, as when the author uses the word jettison to mean jump or employs belabored descriptions: “ ‘I have to go!’ she whined, linking her strange behavior to a biological urgency.”
A diverting combination of ecology and spirituality, despite a few snags.Pub Date: March 17, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-9820342-5-5
Page Count: 150
Publisher: Pinchey House Press
Review Posted Online: March 25, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A pleasing premise for book lovers.
A fantasy-loving bookworm makes a wonderful, terrible bargain.
When sixth grader Poppy Woodlock’s historic preservationist parents move the family to the Oregon coast to work on the titular stately home, Poppy’s sure she’ll find magic. Indeed, the exiled water nymph in the manor’s ruined swimming pool grants a wish, but: “Magic isn’t free. It cosssts.” The price? Poppy’s favorite book, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. In return she receives Sampson, a winged lion cub who is everything Poppy could have hoped for. But she soon learns that the nymph didn’t take just her own physical book—she erased Narnia from Poppy’s world. And it’s just the first loss: Soon, Poppy’s grandmother’s journal’s gone, then The Odyssey, and more. The loss is heartbreaking, but Sampson’s a wonderful companion, particularly as Poppy’s finding middle school a tough adjustment. Hartman’s premise is beguiling—plenty of readers will identify with Poppy, both as a fellow bibliophile and as a kid struggling to adapt. Poppy’s repeatedly expressed faith that unveiling Sampson will bring some sort of vindication wears thin, but that does not detract from the central drama. It’s a pity that the named real-world books Poppy reads are notably lacking in diversity; a story about the power of literature so limited in imagination lets both itself and readers down. Main characters are cued White; there is racial diversity in the supporting cast. Chapters open with atmospheric spot art. (This review has been updated to reflect the final illustrations.)
A pleasing premise for book lovers. (Fantasy. 9-12)Pub Date: May 2, 2023
ISBN: 9780316448222
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
An absorbing fantasy centered on a resilient female protagonist facing growth, change, and self-empowerment.
In Florence’s middle-grade fantasy novel, a young girl’s heart is tested in the face of an evil, spreading Darkness.
Eleven-year-old Lydia, “freckle-cheeked and round-eyed, with hair the color of pine bark and fair skin,” is struggling with the knowledge that she has reached the age to apprentice as an herbalist. Lydia is reluctant to leave her beloved, magical Mulberry Glen and her cozy Housetree in the woods—she’ll miss Garder, the Glen’s respected philosopher; her fairy guardian Pit; her human friend Livy; and even the mischievous part-elf, part-imp, part-human twins Zale and Zamilla. But the twins go missing after hearing of a soul-sapping Darkness that has swallowed a forest and is creeping into minds and engulfing entire towns. They have secretly left to find a rare fruit that, it is said, will stop the Darkness if thrown into the heart of the mountain that rises out of the lethal forest. Lydia follows, determined to find the twins before they, too, fall victim to the Darkness. During her journey, accompanied by new friends, she gradually realizes that she herself has a dangerous role to play in the quest to stop the Darkness. In this well-crafted fantasy, Florence skillfully equates the physical manifestation of Darkness with the feelings of insecurity and powerlessness that Lydia first struggles with when thinking of leaving the Glen. Such negative thoughts grow more intrusive the closer she and her friends come to the Darkness—and to Lydia’s ultimate, powerfully rendered test of character, which leads to a satisfyingly realistic, not quite happily-ever-after ending. Highlights include a delightfully haunting, reality-shifting library and a deft sprinkling of Latin throughout the text; Pit’s pet name for Lydia is mea flosculus (“my little flower”). Fine-lined ink drawings introducing each chapter add a pleasing visual element to this well-grounded fairy tale.
An absorbing fantasy centered on a resilient female protagonist facing growth, change, and self-empowerment.Pub Date: Jan. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9781956393095
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Waxwing Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 14, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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