The wildlife and natural settings remain fresh; not so much the characters and plot.
Three young shark taggers run into dangers ranging from poachers to large reptiles while exploring Florida’s western coast.
Checking out the mazes of mangroves and old shell mounds around Sanibel Island for wild oranges resistant to the citrus greening disease that is threatening the state’s cultivated fruits quickly leads Cuban American tween sisters Maribel and Sabina and White Midwestern farm boy Luke into tense encounters with both a tremendous Florida saltwater crocodile tending her batch of hatchlings and a pair of drunken outsiders who turn out to be animal traffickers. Plainly not shy about recycling themes, plot elements, and character types from previous entries, the author also trots in another ghost, some more buried gold, and Capt. Pony, a cranky septuagenarian fishing guide who is accompanied for comic relief by an attack goose (named Carlos, after a former king of the area’s Indigenous Calusa people) to supply the young naturalists with snippets of local history. The splashy, suspenseful, and occasionally supernatural climax ends properly with the baddies in the hands of the law and large numbers of captive croc hatchlings and baby turtles rescued. Capt. Pony (whose father came from Cuba) and the girls are repeatedly described as speaking Spanish but the text contains little actual Spanish, and Sabina is described as having “weird, witchy powers” due to her contact with santeras in Cuba.
The wildlife and natural settings remain fresh; not so much the characters and plot. (Adventure. 9-12)Pub Date: Feb. 15, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-250-81351-0
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: Nov. 15, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2021
A real gem.
A 10-year old girl learns to adjust to a strange town, makes some fascinating friends, and fills the empty space in her heart thanks to a big old stray dog in this lyrical, moving, and enchanting book by a fresh new voice.
India Opal’s mama left when she was only three, and her father, “the preacher,” is absorbed in his own loss and in the work of his new ministry at the Open-Arms Baptist Church of Naomi [Florida]. Enter Winn-Dixie, a dog who “looked like a big piece of old brown carpet that had been left out in the rain.” But, this dog had a grin “so big that it made him sneeze.” And, as Opal says, “It’s hard not to immediately fall in love with a dog who has a good sense of humor.” Because of Winn-Dixie, Opal meets Miss Franny Block, an elderly lady whose papa built her a library of her own when she was just a little girl and she’s been the librarian ever since. Then, there’s nearly blind Gloria Dump, who hangs the empty bottle wreckage of her past from the mistake tree in her back yard. And, Otis, oh yes, Otis, whose music charms the gerbils, rabbits, snakes and lizards he’s let out of their cages in the pet store. Brush strokes of magical realism elevate this beyond a simple story of friendship to a well-crafted tale of community and fellowship, of sweetness, sorrow and hope. And, it’s funny, too.
A real gem. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: March 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-7636-0776-2
Page Count: 182
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2000
SEEN & HEARD
Entrancing and uplifting.
A small dog, the elderly woman who owns him, and a homeless girl come together to create a tale of serendipity.
Piper, almost 12, her parents, and her younger brother are at the bottom of a long slide toward homelessness. Finally in a family shelter, Piper finds that her newfound safety gives her the opportunity to reach out to someone who needs help even more. Jewel, mentally ill, lives in the park with her dog, Baby. Unwilling to leave her pet, and forbidden to enter the shelter with him, she struggles with the winter weather. Ree, also homeless and with a large dog, helps when she can, but after Jewel gets sick and is hospitalized, Baby’s taken to the animal shelter, and Ree can’t manage the complex issues alone. It’s Piper, using her best investigative skills, who figures out Jewel’s backstory. Still, she needs all the help of the shelter Firefly Girls troop that she joins to achieve her accomplishment: to raise enough money to provide Jewel and Baby with a secure, hopeful future and, maybe, with their kindness, to inspire a happier story for Ree. Told in the authentic alternating voices of loving child and loyal dog, this tale could easily slump into a syrupy melodrama, but Pyron lets her well-drawn characters earn their believable happy ending, step by challenging step, by reaching out and working together. Piper, her family, and Jewel present white; Pyron uses hair and naming convention, respectively, to cue Ree as black and Piper’s friend Gabriela as Latinx.
Entrancing and uplifting. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Aug. 13, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-06-283922-0
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: April 9, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2019
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