An imaginative, humorous book with a strong emotional foundation.
A magical helper comes to the aid of a worried young boy in this chapter book.
There’s a bond between young kuzoolies—magical, human-sized fairylike creatures with wings—and children. Only kids can see them, and even then, only the kuzoolies who aren’t fully grown. Feyi Fay is a young blue-winged kuzooly with chocolate-colored skin and coffee-colored eyes. Via a magical phone app that only kids know about, Feyi learns that a boy in London needs her help. Tom, about 6, has messy blond hair and a problem. He’s heard from his friend Tunde that a Madam Koi Koi (named for the sound she makes when walking) takes kids away who open their eyes after going to bed. Now he can’t sleep, and he hears noises from the living room. This must mean that “Madam Koi Koi is talking to my mom and they are plotting to take away my ice cream...forever!” As evidence, a strange pair of red high heels can be seen under the crack in the bedroom door—shoes that make the sound “Koi Koi Koi.” If Tom will be brave and ask his mother, Feyi can protect them from Madam Koi Koi with various magical objects manifested through a special cowry bead. After a series of amusing misadventures, Tom and Feyi learn the truth about the red-shoes–wearing woman and a lesson about the protectiveness of mothers. In her debut book, Brownstone inserts a Nigerian boarding school legend about a ghostly high-heeled teacher within her own original creation about African fairies. These fairies are refreshing, given the superabundance of white-skinned fairies in children’s books. Tom’s fears are taken seriously but contrasted with Feyi’s lighthearted confidence and the charm of magic. His anxieties find deeper reassurance, though, in his mother’s realism and strength: “No madam is taking you away from me. No sir. Not on my watch.” The illustrations, too, are entertainingly lively. It’s an effective, well-balanced mix, likely to win readers for the next planned volume in this series. Discussion questions and further links are provided.
An imaginative, humorous book with a strong emotional foundation.Pub Date: July 2, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-73223-150-4
Page Count: 101
Publisher: Teni and Tayo Creations LLC
Review Posted Online: Aug. 13, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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
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SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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