A charming, funny and engaging fairy tale that’s sure to delight admirers of the classics.
Valentino offers an engaging fantasy that draws upon familiar fairy tales and the romantic mix-ups of Shakespeare’s lighter comedies.
Alice and Celia live with their wicked stepmother, Calamita, and spoiled stepsisters, the cruel and greedy twins Tarantula and Anaconda. Fearing that Alice and Celia will ruin her daughters’ chances of finding husbands, Calamita sends the pair into the Enchanted Forest to fetch firewood but makes sure they lose their way among the winding paths. The two girls find their godmother, Mozzarella, a cantankerous old fairy who spends most of her time consulting an opinionated, hotheaded mirror. She soon sends the girls back out into the world to seek their fortunes, but just in case they get separated, she gives them each a magic silver ring that will turn red if either girl gets into serious trouble. What follows is a delightful romp through the enchanted wood and beyond, with the girls traveling along different paths (sketched out in the author’s maps at the beginning of each section). They meet a cast of characters to rival those found in Lewis Carroll’s Wonderland and the forests and woods of the Brothers Grimm. The fast pace, witty dialogue and winding plot keep the story fizzing until the end, and a host of wonders add to the charm—including a fox with a magical napkin that can feed a table of giants, a glass mountain with a city carved into its summit and a cat who rules a kingdom. As in all good fairy tales, the two heroines seek out and find their princes, and after a series of mistaken identities and precarious mishaps, they’re far better off than at the start of their journeys.
A charming, funny and engaging fairy tale that’s sure to delight admirers of the classics.Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-0854-2954-6
Page Count: 119
Publisher: Brattle Publishing Group
Review Posted Online: Jan. 15, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Broccoli: No way is James going to eat broccoli. “It’s disgusting,” says James. Well then, James, says his father, let’s consider the alternatives: some wormy dirt, perhaps, some stinky socks, some pre-chewed gum? James reconsiders the broccoli, but—milk? “Blech,” says James. Right, says his father, who needs strong bones? You’ll be great at hide-and-seek, though not so great at baseball and kickball and even tickling the dog’s belly. James takes a mouthful. So it goes through lumpy oatmeal, mushroom lasagna and slimy eggs, with James’ father parrying his son’s every picky thrust. And it is fun, because the father’s retorts are so outlandish: the lasagna-making troll in the basement who will be sent back to the rat circus, there to endure the rodent’s vicious bites; the uneaten oatmeal that will grow and grow and probably devour the dog that the boy won’t be able to tickle any longer since his bones are so rubbery. Schneider’s watercolors catch the mood of gentle ribbing, the looks of bewilderment and surrender and the deadpanned malarkey. It all makes James’ father’s last urging—“I was just going to say that you might like them if you tried them”—wholly fresh and unexpected advice. (Early reader. 5-9)
Pub Date: May 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-547-14956-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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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