Enthralling adventures and plot twists will leave readers impatient for the next installment.
A threat to the survival of the Rainbow Realm brings bigger stakes and more questions in this third series entry.
Directly following the events of Mihi Ever After: A Giant Problem (2023), Mihi Park and best friends Reese and Savannah somberly travel back to the Rainbow Realm, aware that, due to the dangers of their mission, they may never return home. The girls must venture across worlds to retrieve Princess Pat, who’s traveling to various lands and taking the dust that’s a source of magic in order to save the Rainbow Realm, where magic is waning. Bertha, an antagonist turned ally, brings the friends to the bazaar and the shop Masters of Disguise, where old helpers Dae Ho and Conan equip them with Follow Feet, tracking shoes that lead the wearer to the person they want to find. The action-packed story quickly picks up in pace as the trio set off on mechanical dragon trains. Elements from global fairy tales are incorporated, including a Korean kumiho (fox demon) and dokkaebi (goblins) and Irish leprechauns. As the trio close in on Pat, Mihi questions whether it’s right to let one realm die in order for another to survive. Mihi’s choices spur a shift in the magic that affects the portals, ending the book on a cliffhanger. Engaging black-and-white illustrations add to the suspense.
Enthralling adventures and plot twists will leave readers impatient for the next installment. (Fantasy. 8-12)Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781250814258
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Dec. 6, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2024
A deeply imaginative journey that puts the “cat” in cathartic.
A loyal black kitten’s boy is under supernatural attack.
Eleven-month-old Nimbus loves Fletcher, the boy who nursed her back to health following life-threatening injuries. When Fletcher becomes curious about a strange jar and opens it, releasing a terrible goblin, loyal Nim protects Fletcher, taking heavy damage in the process. But Fletcher’s aunt, who’s caring for him over spring break, believes Nim attacked Fletcher and dumps her far from home. Rhett, a stylish rat with star quality, befriends injured Nim and leads her to a witch’s house. While the witch cares for Nim, the witch’s cats (maternal Fern, bookish Rochester, standoffish Bianca, and openly hostile Abraxas) teach Nim important cat skills. She also discovers she has a supernatural ability: In destroying one eye of the nightmare demon in the fight to protect Fletcher, Nim gained its “dream sight.” But she also learns it might come back for Fletcher, who no longer has Nim to protect him, posing a time-sensitive, high-stakes threat. Even though the witch’s home is nice and magic itself seems to be telling her to stay put, Nim wants to find a way back to Fletcher. As a hero, Nimbus is as gritty and determined as she is adorable. Tear-jerker moments explore pet abandonment—readers may want their own pets on hand to hug—all the way through the magical, action-packed finale. Fletcher and the witch read white.
A deeply imaginative journey that puts the “cat” in cathartic. (Fantasy. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2023
ISBN: 9780062680372
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2023
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
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