An appealing blend of ballet, camaraderie, mystery, and frights.
A school takes in girls and spits them out as polished ballet dancers—but how?
Twelve-year-old Gemma Craylor’s mother signed her up for the Stadler Ballet Conservatory, not because of any particular skill but rather because she believes that Gemma needs refining. And that’s what Stadler, whose motto is “Simul perfecti sumus. In unity, perfection,” is known for: transforming “average” girls. Genevieve “Neve” Corbin, meanwhile, isn’t interested in any of Stadler’s promises of reinvention. She just wants to find her older sister and get out, because something isn’t right at the school—it’s turned Bex into someone bland and devoid of personality. Behind Stadler’s walls, Gemma and Neve encounter rules, mystery, and menace and, despite their differences, come to rely on each other and their classmates to survive the lurking dangers. While readers who are dancers will have to summon some mild suspension of belief regarding the caliber of ballet training that the girls receive, ballet quickly becomes the backdrop for an exploration of individuality, collective power, and the conflict—or alliance—between humans and nature. The white-presenting leads’ alternating viewpoints add suspense and bring the characters and their motivations to life while touching on topics such as body positivity and social alienation. Interspersed retellings of classic ballets add interest for ballet enthusiasts, while the mystery and horror elements are thrilling yet still tame enough for more sensitive readers.
An appealing blend of ballet, camaraderie, mystery, and frights. (Horror. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2026
ISBN: 9780593465608
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: June 1, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
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
A successful call for creating and imagining, even if the story itself falls short.
In the dystopian, totalitarian world of 2099, 14-year-old Tessa and her family are desperate to solve the mystery of her twin brother Theo’s disappearance.
Tessa is growing up in a time when playgrounds are historical relics, surveillance cameras are everywhere, music is outlawed, and owning books is illegal. Under the absolute rule of Zokiris, the decadeslong leader of her territory, people are heavily controlled. When Theo vanishes under mysterious circumstances and his name is erased from the Territory Statistics list, Tessa’s 135-year-old neighbor, Miriam, gives the family contraband books that become central to figuring out Theo’s whereabouts. Most books have long since been seized and stored away in Building 903; Tessa is intrigued by their presence in her home, while her mother is terrified. Lowry, the acclaimed, award-winning author of The Giver (1993), shines in her creation of uncomfortably believable dystopian societies. Tessa’s painfully limited world is fully imagined, with its own history, laws, and norms. Her relationship with her brother reads as realistic and tender and is crucial to the mystery. Miriam is the most strongly developed character: wise and independent, unafraid and hopeful. While the climb to the book’s climax is captivating, the hurried resolution is disappointing. The powerful messaging around the importance of literature and imagination certainly resonates, however. The main characters present white.
A successful call for creating and imagining, even if the story itself falls short. (Dystopian. 9-12)Pub Date: Sept. 29, 2026
ISBN: 9780063515109
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Clarion/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 6, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2026
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