Uneven but could get kids thinking about ways to safeguard the environment.
Fifth in a series, this children’s chapter book finds practical and fanciful ways to promote environmentalism.
Jackson, nearly 11, came back to Earth about a year ago with his mother and sister from their dying world. Tara, a girl from Earth his age, found a magic portal and led them to safety as predicted by Magic Moon, who grants certain requests and gives advice. In Magic Moon’s new world, he helped young Farni, who was being bullied—no more, thanks in part to the protection of Brown Bear. Now, though, Brown Bear is in danger, his kind almost extinct. Magic Moon suggests using an upcoming solar eclipse to get the villagers’ attention and demonstrate Brown Bear’s harmlessness. On Earth, Jackson looks forward to going with Tara and her family to Bears Ears National Monument—but is saddened to learn that the government plans to discontinue many protections for the area. He decides to get signatures on a petition and send it to his representative. On an exciting ride in Tara’s grandfather’s helicopter, also during a solar eclipse, the families fly through another magic portal to Farni’s world, which Magic Moon says can be another home for endangered species like grizzlies. In both worlds, children learn that they can make a difference. Moulton (Magic Moon: A New Beginning [Vol. 4], 2017, etc.) employs humor and the appeal of magic to enliven her protect-the-environment message. The idea of a Noah’s Ark planet where endangered species can safely live also has a lot of appeal. Dialogue reveals character well; for example, the children speak casually, while the scientists on Farni’s world use a stuffier register—an amusing contrast to Magic Moon’s directness. For example, after Magic Moon booms, “I’m right here!” the scientists reply with “It speaks!...What manner of being is this?” The overall story unfolds via short chapters that alternate between worlds, and it can be hard to follow the separate plotlines, which tend to get lost in all the detail about, for example, proper viewing equipment for the eclipse.
Uneven but could get kids thinking about ways to safeguard the environment.Pub Date: Nov. 16, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-9983137-3-3
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Time Tunnel Media
Review Posted Online: July 16, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
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