A fine choice for newly independent and reluctant readers, featuring good-natured characters, a well-intentioned mutt, and...
A young German shepherd and his human family bound into snowy adventure in the second chapter book in Gorian’s (Rosco the Rascal Visits the Pumpkin Patch, 2014) series, with illustrations by Webb (Beautiful Brown, 2018, etc.).
Rosco, a 2-year-old dog, is full of exuberant, youthful energy; although he’s full grown, he’s still learning how to behave like his family wants. When they all travel into the mountains for a vacation, Rosco can’t help making mistakes: He ruins second-grader Mandy’s perfect snow angel; leaves paw prints all over her and fifth-grader James’ snowman (and steals its carrot nose); and accidentally drags Mandy down a sledding hill at a frightening speed. But when the kids stumble upon an angry mother coyote that’s trying to rescue her pup from a trap, Rosco stands between them and danger. The narrative shows the vacation from the perspectives of various characters, including Rosco himself, and offers details of potentially unfamiliar tasks, such as putting on snow tires. The Caucasian kids get along better than most fictional siblings; they’re well-behaved and hardly argue. Webb’s black-and-white images are spaced frequently enough to comfort independent readers who might be intimidated by books without any pictures. Their quality, though, is a bit uneven, and some feel unfinished, such as a hard-lined image of the coyote mother. The language is perfunctory rather than artful, but Gorian writes in a concise, simple style that budding readers will find accessible.
A fine choice for newly independent and reluctant readers, featuring good-natured characters, a well-intentioned mutt, and an outdoor rescue mission.Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-692-06003-2
Page Count: 112
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: April 24, 2018
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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