Pithy tellings accompanied by sumptuous illustrations make for a delightful collection.
From a Dutch Iraqi author and storyteller, a collection of folktales that take place in ancient Iraq and Persia.
Characters range from humble to royal and include animals and even magical speaking objects. Familiar themes such as staying true to oneself and finding contentment in one’s circumstances are woven into the tales, sometimes as straightforward adages (“If you are satisfied with what you have, then you are rich”; “we must not listen to others, but to…our own hearts”), other times with complex twists and turns that challenge readers to deduce their own moral before arriving at the ending. Many stories are presented within frames, and the relationship between storyteller and listener changes throughout; sometimes it’s father and son, other times grandmother and grandchild; still others it’s friends. There is a strong undercurrent of humor, as in the tale told by one traveler to another—who falls asleep before the raconteur is finished. Aalders’ vivid, brilliantly colored cut-paper illustrations present insects and vegetables with the same loving level of detail as scenes of the Euphrates, palaces, and expansive deserts. Two stories feature characters who twist Islam into a bitter, untrue faith, to be corrected by a loving God in the end; they are the only explicitly religious characters in the book. Short, witty, and direct, these tales make perfect short bedtime reads or interludes during the day.
Pithy tellings accompanied by sumptuous illustrations make for a delightful collection. (collector’s note) (Folktales. 7-12)Pub Date: Nov. 9, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5362-1450-5
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Oct. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2021
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
An uncomplicated opener, with some funny bits and a clear but not heavy agenda.
Hank Zipzer, poster boy for dyslexic middle graders everywhere, stars in a new prequel series highlighting second-grade trials and triumphs.
Hank’s hopes of playing Aqua Fly, a comic-book character, in the upcoming class play founder when, despite plenty of coaching and preparation, he freezes up during tryouts. He is not particularly comforted when his sympathetic teacher adds a nonspeaking role as a bookmark to the play just for him. Following the pattern laid down in his previous appearances as an older child, he gets plenty of help and support from understanding friends (including Ashley Wong, a new apartment-house neighbor). He even manages to turn lemons into lemonade with a quick bit of improv when Nick “the Tick” McKelty, the sneering classmate who took his preferred role, blanks on his lines during the performance. As the aforementioned bully not only chokes in the clutch and gets a demeaning nickname, but is fat, boastful and eats like a pig, the authors’ sensitivity is rather one-sided. Still, Hank has a winning way of bouncing back from adversity, and like the frequent black-and-white line-and-wash drawings, the typeface is designed with easy legibility in mind.
An uncomplicated opener, with some funny bits and a clear but not heavy agenda. (Fiction. 7-9)Pub Date: Feb. 14, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-448-48239-2
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Grosset & Dunlap
Review Posted Online: Dec. 10, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2014
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