An exciting and involving rescue tale, especially for horse-loving readers.
When forest fires threaten her family’s horses, a Montana girl puts her courage to the test in this middle-grade novel.
Although her room is overflowing with model horses, Cricket O’Conner finds training the real animals to be irritating, especially when it comes to an ornery blue roan named Gonna Be. But Cricket has to work on the family’s Montana ranch even today—her 12th birthday. With her gift money, she buys a china horse painted with flames; Fuego, as she calls him, sometimes seems more than just a figurine. He stars in her daydream adventures, but when fast-moving wildfires threaten the community, Cricket must put aside imaginary conflicts and pitch in. After helping rescue a neighbor’s many pets (including 30 cats), Cricket returns home to discover that two colts are missing. Her mother, frantically trying to protect the ranch before they must evacuate, says there’s no time to find them. But Fuego seems to tell her a different story: “It’s up to you and Gonna Be. You need to figure out a way to find the colts. They’re in trouble.” Slipping out with Gonna Be, Cricket embarks on an arduous search that will challenge the colt’s mettle and her own. In her novel, Sheila Ruble nicely dovetails the plot with Cricket’s growing maturity. The girl shines in the pet-rescue episode; unlike flustered adults, Cricket pays attention, comes up with a feasible plan, and implements it. And hunting for the lost colts allows Cricket to appreciate what she’s been teaching—and learning from—Gonna Be. Fuego’s supernatural intervention is perhaps unnecessary but works as a symbol of Cricket’s newfound inner direction. Debut illustrator Robert Ruble, the author’s husband, provides appealing images. Though digitally created, they feel like hand-drawn pencil work and enhance the text, including a picture of a grumpy marmalade cat who figures in the plot.
An exciting and involving rescue tale, especially for horse-loving readers.Pub Date: March 24, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-98-525821-4
Page Count: 278
Publisher: Barking Dog Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 20, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Hugely entertaining, timely, and triumphant.
Robot Roz undertakes an unusual ocean journey to save her adopted island home in this third series entry.
When a poison tide flowing across the ocean threatens their island, Roz works with the resident creatures to ensure that they will have clean water, but the destruction of vegetation and crowding of habitats jeopardize everyone’s survival. Brown’s tale of environmental depredation and turmoil is by turns poignant, graceful, endearing, and inspiring, with his (mostly) gentle robot protagonist at its heart. Though Roz is different from the creatures she lives with or encounters—including her son, Brightbill the goose, and his new mate, Glimmerwing—she makes connections through her versatile communication abilities and her desire to understand and help others. When Roz accidentally discovers that the replacement body given to her by Dr. Molovo is waterproof, she sets out to seek help and discovers the human-engineered source of the toxic tide. Brown’s rich descriptions of undersea landscapes, entertaining conversations between Roz and wild creatures, and concise yet powerful explanations of the effect of the poison tide on the ecology of the island are superb. Simple, spare illustrations offer just enough glimpses of Roz and her surroundings to spark the imagination. The climactic confrontation pits oceangoing mammals, seabirds, fish, and even zooplankton against hardware and technology in a nicely choreographed battle. But it is Roz’s heroism and peacemaking that save the day.
Hugely entertaining, timely, and triumphant. (author’s note) (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2023
ISBN: 9780316669412
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2023
The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often...
A successful juvenile by the beloved New Yorker writer portrays a farm episode with an imaginative twist that makes a poignant, humorous story of a pig, a spider and a little girl.
Young Fern Arable pleads for the life of runt piglet Wilbur and gets her father to sell him to a neighbor, Mr. Zuckerman. Daily, Fern visits the Zuckermans to sit and muse with Wilbur and with the clever pen spider Charlotte, who befriends him when he is lonely and downcast. At the news of Wilbur's forthcoming slaughter, campaigning Charlotte, to the astonishment of people for miles around, spins words in her web. "Some Pig" comes first. Then "Terrific"—then "Radiant". The last word, when Wilbur is about to win a show prize and Charlotte is about to die from building her egg sac, is "Humble". And as the wonderful Charlotte does die, the sadness is tempered by the promise of more spiders next spring.
The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often informative as amusing, and the whole tenor of appealing wit and pathos will make fine entertainment for reading aloud, too.Pub Date: Oct. 15, 1952
ISBN: 978-0-06-026385-0
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1952
PERSPECTIVES
SEEN & HEARD
© Copyright 2025 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.
