by Simisayo Brownstone ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 2, 2018
An imaginative, humorous book with a strong emotional foundation.
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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
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by J.D. Salinger ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 15, 1951
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
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by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2006
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
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