Readers will be rooting for both Cadence as she claims her gift and the community who supports her.
What if, in not keeping a promise to God, you make a deal with the devil?
Ten-year-old Cadence Mariah Jolly, named after singer Mariah Carey, belies her name: she suffers from near-deleterious social anxiety, especially after her mother left her, her father, older brother, and the small town of Harmony, Pennsylvania, to pursue a singing career. The solicitous, diverse townspeople—from the African-American Trinity Sisters and server Sofine to Chinese-American classmate Mei-Mei’s mother—who dote on the black family with pity and prayer don’t know that Cadence’s mother left her with another gift: the ability to sing…mostly because Cadence is terrified to use it. When she initially prays for a keyboard and microphone, she makes a deal with God that if she gets them she would indeed share her talent, but she vacillates as opportunities, such as graduating to the Youth Choir, appear. When Cadence inadvertently sings in front of her best friends, Zara and Faith, one of them tries to exploit the main character’s shyness for her own chance at fame. Though some may feel Winston overdoes the musical names (in addition to Cadence, there’s her dog, Lyra, and the choir assistant, Miss Stravinski), she creates a rich and winning first-person story about a deeply introverted black girl who nearly loses her gift because of her understandable but undermining fear.
Readers will be rooting for both Cadence as she claims her gift and the community who supports her. (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Jan. 3, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-316-30295-1
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Sept. 18, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2016
A verdant, enchanting read let down by poorly executed diverse representation.
Old riddles provide a modern girl with a summer adventure.
Caspia Turkel would rather stay in her small Maine town than spend 11 weeks (the whole summer!) in Brooklyn, even though her parents are excited about the opportunities awaiting them. Within a hand-painted dresser in their rented apartment, Caspia finds a stack of pale-green linen envelopes, tied with a velvet ribbon. The letters inside were sent in the 1950s and ’60s to a girl named Minna from her loving sister, Rosalind, and they contain a series of riddles about plants. Even though she’s never given much thought to growing things before, Caspia dives into this scavenger hunt and learns unexpected things about what Rosalind dubbed the “Green Kingdom.” She also meets amazing people on her journeys around her urban neighborhood, which includes the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. The broad range of featured plants includes many that are likely to be familiar to readers. Co-authors Hartung, who has botanical expertise, and Funke, whose original German text was translated by Anna Schmitt Funke, add magic to the mundane, collaborating to create a realistic story that nevertheless feels wonderfully fantastical. Castrillón’s delicate illustrations have an old-fashioned feel and provide marvelous atmosphere as well as effectively highlighting the various plant species. Caspia, who’s white, makes a diverse group of friends in Brooklyn, but many of their portrayals feel exoticizing and othering, marring the attempt to celebrate diversity. (This review was updated to reflect further communication from the publisher regarding the translation credit.)
A verdant, enchanting read let down by poorly executed diverse representation. (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: April 1, 2025
ISBN: 9780593959305
Page Count: 224
Publisher: DK Publishing
Review Posted Online: Dec. 28, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2025
A captivating adventure about the strength of love and family.
A Nigerian city girl visits her estranged grandmother in a remote village and is confronted with family secrets.
Thirteen-year-old Simi has only known Lagos—until her mother needs to go to London for work. Her parents are divorced, and Simi can’t stay with her perpetually busy father, so she is reluctantly shipped off to spend her summer vacation with her maternal grandmother in Ajao, a remote village with no modern technology. Soon after her exhausting journey by bus and taxi, Simi goes for a walk and is drawn to go the wrong way—into the forest and toward a forbidden lake, where she is briefly transported to a different world, something she at first believes is a dream. Although her staunchly Christian mother does not want her exposed to the Yoruba gods and goddesses her grandmother follows, Simi later learns a story that is connected to her family about Oshun, the river and water goddess. As more children are lured toward the lake, Simi feels compelled to come forward and risk everything to heal the wounds in her family and help the village that has come to feel like home. Traoré’s debut is brimming with earnest, admiring details about Yoruba culture and traditions that are woven into the worldbuilding. As Simi’s fast-paced adventure unfolds, readers will be swept away by the limited omniscient narration in this plot-driven story with a strong sense of place.
A captivating adventure about the strength of love and family. (author's note, glossary) (Fantasy. 8-12)Pub Date: July 26, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-338-78192-2
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Chicken House/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: April 26, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2022
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