A quiet, unassuming, somewhat uneventful tale reinforcing the adage "there’s no place like home."
Stranded on a mysterious island, a young girl wonders if she’ll ever return to her family.
After the ship she’s traveling on with her aunt, uncle, and cousins encounters a storm, 11-year-old Pascale Chardon wakes up alone, adrift in a small boat. The tides carry her to the tiny tropical island of TeJÉ along with her only companion, a black beetle she’s named Inch. Until Pascale’s arrival, the island has never had a visitor, and she’s taken to the village Elders to see if she may be the Long Awaited, a prophesied stranger who will decide the community’s future. The previously uninhabited island was populated generations ago by people from around the world who left their societies in search of peaceful coexistence. Legend says that the islanders’ fate will be determined by whether the Long Awaited finds them living in peace and unity or conflict and strife. Pascale learns she must remain on TeJÉ for 17 days to determine if she’s the Long Awaited; however, she has no clue if she’s the Long Awaited and just wants to go home. Pascale settles into the daily rhythm of a caring, cooperative community, and events seem to unfold glacially, mirroring the idyllic island’s pace of life. When the long-awaited day finally arrives, the conclusion proves quite surprising. Pascale is presumably White; names point to the islanders’ multicultural ancestry.
A quiet, unassuming, somewhat uneventful tale reinforcing the adage "there’s no place like home." (Fantasy. 8-11)Pub Date: April 19, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-77086-647-8
Page Count: 220
Publisher: DCB
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2022
Ironically, by choosing such a dramatic catalyst, the author weakens the adventure’s impact overall and leaves readers to...
A group of talking farm animals catches wind of the farm owner’s intention to burn the barn (with them in it) for insurance money and hatches a plan to flee.
Bond begins briskly—within the first 10 pages, barn cat Burdock has overheard Dewey Baxter’s nefarious plan, and by Page 17, all of the farm animals have been introduced and Burdock is sharing the terrifying news. Grady, Dewey’s (ever-so-slightly) more principled brother, refuses to go along, but instead of standing his ground, he simply disappears. This leaves the animals to fend for themselves. They do so by relying on their individual strengths and one another. Their talents and personalities match their species, bringing an element of realism to balance the fantasy elements. However, nothing can truly compensate for the bland horror of the premise. Not the growing sense of family among the animals, the serendipitous intervention of an unknown inhabitant of the barn, nor the convenient discovery of an alternate home. Meanwhile, Bond’s black-and-white drawings, justly compared to those of Garth Williams, amplify the sense of dissonance. Charming vignettes and single- and double-page illustrations create a pastoral world into which the threat of large-scale violence comes as a shock.
Ironically, by choosing such a dramatic catalyst, the author weakens the adventure’s impact overall and leaves readers to ponder the awkward coincidences that propel the plot. (Animal fantasy. 8-10)Pub Date: July 7, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-544-33217-1
Page Count: 256
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: March 31, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2015
Medically, both squicky and hopeful; emotionally, unbelievably squeaky-clean.
A 12-year-old copes with a brain tumor.
Maddie likes potatoes and fake mustaches. Kids at school are nice (except one whom readers will see instantly is a bully); soon they’ll get to perform Shakespeare scenes in a unit they’ve all been looking forward to. But recent dysfunctions in Maddie’s arm and leg mean, stunningly, that she has a brain tumor. She has two surgeries, the first successful, the second taking place after the book’s end, leaving readers hanging. The tumor’s not malignant, but it—or the surgeries—could cause sight loss, personality change, or death. The descriptions of surgery aren’t for the faint of heart. The authors—parents of a real-life Maddie who really had a brain tumor—imbue fictional Maddie’s first-person narration with quirky turns of phrase (“For the love of potatoes!”) and whimsy (she imagines her medical battles as epic fantasy fights and pretends MRI stands for Mustard Rat from Indiana or Mustaches Rock Importantly), but they also portray her as a model sick kid. She’s frightened but never acts out, snaps, or resists. Her most frequent commentary about the tumor, having her skull opened, and the possibility of death is “Boo” or “Super boo.” She even shoulders the bully’s redemption. Maddie and most characters are white; one cringe-inducing hallucinatory surgery dream involves “chanting island natives” and a “witch doctor lady.”
Medically, both squicky and hopeful; emotionally, unbelievably squeaky-clean. (authors’ note, discussion questions) (Fiction. 9-11)Pub Date: Oct. 3, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-62972-330-3
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Shadow Mountain
Review Posted Online: Aug. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2017
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