Buoyant, engaging, and magical, with characters that linger.
An adolescent girl and a humpback whale calf form a unique interspecies connection in Spandel’s charming middle-grade coming-of-age tale.
Koholā, a recently born (and already weighing almost a ton) humpback whale calf, is frolicking with his mother, Kumu, in the bay off Maui, Hawaii. The rambunctious and curious youngster is testing his strength, trying to reach higher and higher into the air, when he sees a small sailboat. Against Kumu’s instructions, he moves close to the boat, which he names “Wind Catcher” for its beautiful white sails. Swimming alongside the vessel, Koholā looks straight into the eyes of a young girl, Makana Kā Kealoha (called Mako), and, for an instant, something passes between them. (Koholā realizes, “She wanted to talk with me”). Mako and her great uncle Kimo are on board his boat, the Li‘i Lani, when Koholā swims up next to them. Mako describes the experience: “I couldn’t speak. Or hear anything except my heart pounding.” Days later, Mako sees that Koholā is alone and she jumps into the water, swimming close enough to gently stroke his silky skin. “From the look on his face,” she observes, “you’d have thought meeting me was the thrill of his life, when really, it was the other way around.” It is the tender beginning of a relationship that propels this delightful story and will last over the coming years as both youngsters begin to find their own ways in their very different worlds, sharing a mutual passion for the ocean. Mako and Koholā serve as narrators in alternating sections—each are endearing sentient beings with a need to connect. Spandel’s fluid, upbeat prose makes the narrative believable. There is enough excitement to keep the pages turning, and the author embeds the tale with life lessons about friendship, familial relationships, competition, and cooperation, both in the worlds of humans and humpbacks. The text is chock-full of fascinating information about humpback feeding habits, lifestyles, and dangerous enemies (especially sharks and the fearsome orcas). Duplisea’s entertaining illustrations are an extra bonus.
Buoyant, engaging, and magical, with characters that linger.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 27, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs.
The Heffley family’s house undergoes a disastrous attempt at home improvement.
When Great Aunt Reba dies, she leaves some money to the family. Greg’s mom calls a family meeting to determine what to do with their share, proposing home improvements and then overruling the family’s cartoonish wish lists and instead pushing for an addition to the kitchen. Before bringing in the construction crew, the Heffleys attempt to do minor maintenance and repairs themselves—during which Greg fails at the work in various slapstick scenes. Once the professionals are brought in, the problems keep getting worse: angry neighbors, terrifying problems in walls, and—most serious—civil permitting issues that put the kibosh on what work’s been done. Left with only enough inheritance to patch and repair the exterior of the house—and with the school’s dismal standardized test scores as a final straw—Greg’s mom steers the family toward moving, opening up house-hunting and house-selling storylines (and devastating loyal Rowley, who doesn’t want to lose his best friend). While Greg’s positive about the move, he’s not completely uncaring about Rowley’s action. (And of course, Greg himself is not as unaffected as he wishes.) The gags include effectively placed callbacks to seemingly incidental events (the “stress lizard” brought in on testing day is particularly funny) and a lampoon of after-school-special–style problem books. Just when it seems that the Heffleys really will move, a new sequence of chaotic trouble and property destruction heralds a return to the status quo. Whew.
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs. (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 8-12)Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3903-3
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Nov. 18, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
Hugely entertaining, timely, and triumphant.
Robot Roz undertakes an unusual ocean journey to save her adopted island home in this third series entry.
When a poison tide flowing across the ocean threatens their island, Roz works with the resident creatures to ensure that they will have clean water, but the destruction of vegetation and crowding of habitats jeopardize everyone’s survival. Brown’s tale of environmental depredation and turmoil is by turns poignant, graceful, endearing, and inspiring, with his (mostly) gentle robot protagonist at its heart. Though Roz is different from the creatures she lives with or encounters—including her son, Brightbill the goose, and his new mate, Glimmerwing—she makes connections through her versatile communication abilities and her desire to understand and help others. When Roz accidentally discovers that the replacement body given to her by Dr. Molovo is waterproof, she sets out to seek help and discovers the human-engineered source of the toxic tide. Brown’s rich descriptions of undersea landscapes, entertaining conversations between Roz and wild creatures, and concise yet powerful explanations of the effect of the poison tide on the ecology of the island are superb. Simple, spare illustrations offer just enough glimpses of Roz and her surroundings to spark the imagination. The climactic confrontation pits oceangoing mammals, seabirds, fish, and even zooplankton against hardware and technology in a nicely choreographed battle. But it is Roz’s heroism and peacemaking that save the day.
Hugely entertaining, timely, and triumphant. (author’s note) (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2023
ISBN: 9780316669412
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2023
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
