A safe yet magical adventure with plenty of heart.
This debut middle-grade fantasy sees four young cousins enter an enchanted wood and become privy to the thoughts of animals.
Elinora Wolton, 15, and her 14-year-old sister, Tillie, live an idyllic existence at Kellandale, a landed estate in Eldmoor (a fictitious country not dissimilar to 19th-century England). Elinora is apprehensive about leaving home to pursue her education, but the only real constraint on the girls’ lives is that they are forbidden to go into Kellandale, aka “Wyches,” Wood, which is reputed to drive people mad. The siblings have reluctantly obeyed this edict, but when they spy a sack being dumped into the river, Tillie insists that they go in search of it. The sisters venture deep into the wood. They find the sack and, wrapped up inside it, a hapless Morlish Wolfhound puppy, whom they rescue and name Henry. In doing so, they discover that the wood is enchanted—in the best possible way. It allows them to share Henry’s feelings and memories and those of the other woodland creatures. Henry becomes their best friend; yet he has been torn from his mother, brothers, and sisters. Can Elinora and Tillie—and their cousins Graham and Jamie—help Henry save his lost family? Spyker’s omniscient narrative harks back to the wholesome escapades once popularized by such authors as E. Nesbit and Enid Blyton, albeit updated to a 21st-century view on gender and race. (The protagonists remain born of privilege but even this is commented on.) The author has an easy prose style and a storyteller’s flair for characterization. While the retro dialogue is mannered, timid, sensible Elinora and bold, impetuous Tillie will appeal to modern readers, and they work beautifully together as protagonists. Henry deserves an immediate induction into the literary pantheon of canine heroes, and it is he, not the children, who provides the narrative glue. As the series opener unfolds, the cast grows perhaps a little too large, but even this is thematically apt. Spyker delivers a strong message of inclusiveness, love, and respect for all creatures. When the plot moves from the shelter of the forest to the darker reality of Coddlefin’s circus (and animal cruelty), the kids’ good intentions only grow.
A safe yet magical adventure with plenty of heart.Pub Date: March 31, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-73661-970-4
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Tulip Tree Creative Studios
Review Posted Online: Aug. 20, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
However the compelling fitness of theme and event and the apt but unexpected imagery (the opening sentences compare the...
At a time when death has become an acceptable, even voguish subject in children's fiction, Natalie Babbitt comes through with a stylistic gem about living forever.
Protected Winnie, the ten-year-old heroine, is not immortal, but when she comes upon young Jesse Tuck drinking from a secret spring in her parents' woods, she finds herself involved with a family who, having innocently drunk the same water some 87 years earlier, haven't aged a moment since. Though the mood is delicate, there is no lack of action, with the Tucks (previously suspected of witchcraft) now pursued for kidnapping Winnie; Mae Tuck, the middle aged mother, striking and killing a stranger who is onto their secret and would sell the water; and Winnie taking Mae's place in prison so that the Tucks can get away before she is hanged from the neck until....? Though Babbitt makes the family a sad one, most of their reasons for discontent are circumstantial and there isn't a great deal of wisdom to be gleaned from their fate or Winnie's decision not to share it.
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1975
ISBN: 0312369816
Page Count: 164
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: April 13, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1975
Charming, poignant, and thoughtfully woven.
An aspiring scientist and a budding artist become friends and help each other with dream projects.
Unfolding in mid-1980s Sacramento, California, this story stars 12-year-olds Rosalind and Benjamin as first-person narrators in alternating chapters. Ro’s father, a fellow space buff, was killed by a drunk driver; the rocket they were working on together lies unfinished in her closet. As for Benji, not only has his best friend, Amir, moved away, but the comic book holding the clue for locating his dad is also missing. Along with their profound personal losses, the protagonists share a fixation with the universe’s intriguing potential: Ro decides to complete the rocket and hopes to launch mementos of her father into outer space while Benji’s conviction that aliens and UFOs are real compels his imagination and creativity as an artist. An accident in science class triggers a chain of events forcing Benji and Ro, who is new to the school, to interact and unintentionally learn each other’s secrets. They resolve to find Benji’s dad—a famous comic-book artist—and partner to finish Ro’s rocket for the science fair. Together, they overcome technical, scheduling, and geographical challenges. Readers will be drawn in by amusing and fantastical elements in the comic book theme, high emotional stakes that arouse sympathy, and well-drawn character development as the protagonists navigate life lessons around grief, patience, self-advocacy, and standing up for others. Ro is biracial (Chinese/White); Benji is White.
Charming, poignant, and thoughtfully woven. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Jan. 12, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-06-300888-5
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
