Friendships, humor, and a young boy’s touching bond with a free-flying crow make this story soar.
Moving house means new friends and trouble for a boy and his crow in Pannell and Sigfusson’s middle-grade novel.
Ten-year-old Brandon figures his life is ruined. His parents are selling the house he grew up in, he worries there won’t be enough room at the new place for his pigeon coop, and his best friend Josh is mad at him. And what will happen to his closest confidant, Ralph, his pet crow? (“Everything important to me is lost… and we haven’t even moved yet.”) A little good news: Ralph must come along to recover from a wing injury, the pigeon coop will fit on the roof of the new two-story brownstone, and Brandon won’t have to change schools. Still, he’s lonely not knowing anyone in the new neighborhood—except, horror of horrors, for the BB Boys, the bullies who terrorize kids at his school. Ringleader Howie’s taunting “Look. It’s the Bird Boy!” portends worse to come, so Brandon plans to ask Josh to help him make friends with the BBs so they’ll leave him alone. (Brandon’s mom is portrayed as realistically alert to her son’s anxiety, but he fears that her intervention would make things worse.) Three new friends try to help, too, without success. Even worse, Howie accuses Ralph of stealing his prized silver whistle. In this lively, engaging middle-school novel, the authors weave a satisfying resolution to the conflict that includes another missing shiny object, an elderly woman (adding a poignant touch), Brandon’s ladybug-raising project (relayed in enough detail to interest any budding entomologist), and a believable evolution of Brandon’s empathy when he discovers that Howie has fears, too. Generous, well-crafted supplementary material includes a “What Do You Think?” section with questions inviting readers to respond before, during, and after reading; a “Thinking Skills” section with questions categorized via Bloom’s taxonomy of high-level thinking (knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, evaluation); a guide to selected words used in the story; and an “Authors’ Chat” interview.
Friendships, humor, and a young boy’s touching bond with a free-flying crow make this story soar.Pub Date: June 11, 2024
ISBN: 9781964064000
Page Count: 258
Publisher: VPTSWriters
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
An absorbing fantasy centered on a resilient female protagonist facing growth, change, and self-empowerment.
In Florence’s middle-grade fantasy novel, a young girl’s heart is tested in the face of an evil, spreading Darkness.
Eleven-year-old Lydia, “freckle-cheeked and round-eyed, with hair the color of pine bark and fair skin,” is struggling with the knowledge that she has reached the age to apprentice as an herbalist. Lydia is reluctant to leave her beloved, magical Mulberry Glen and her cozy Housetree in the woods—she’ll miss Garder, the Glen’s respected philosopher; her fairy guardian Pit; her human friend Livy; and even the mischievous part-elf, part-imp, part-human twins Zale and Zamilla. But the twins go missing after hearing of a soul-sapping Darkness that has swallowed a forest and is creeping into minds and engulfing entire towns. They have secretly left to find a rare fruit that, it is said, will stop the Darkness if thrown into the heart of the mountain that rises out of the lethal forest. Lydia follows, determined to find the twins before they, too, fall victim to the Darkness. During her journey, accompanied by new friends, she gradually realizes that she herself has a dangerous role to play in the quest to stop the Darkness. In this well-crafted fantasy, Florence skillfully equates the physical manifestation of Darkness with the feelings of insecurity and powerlessness that Lydia first struggles with when thinking of leaving the Glen. Such negative thoughts grow more intrusive the closer she and her friends come to the Darkness—and to Lydia’s ultimate, powerfully rendered test of character, which leads to a satisfyingly realistic, not quite happily-ever-after ending. Highlights include a delightfully haunting, reality-shifting library and a deft sprinkling of Latin throughout the text; Pit’s pet name for Lydia is mea flosculus (“my little flower”). Fine-lined ink drawings introducing each chapter add a pleasing visual element to this well-grounded fairy tale.
An absorbing fantasy centered on a resilient female protagonist facing growth, change, and self-empowerment.Pub Date: Jan. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9781956393095
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Waxwing Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 14, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A fast and funny alternative to the Wimpy Kid.
Black sixth-grader Jake Liston can only play one song on the piano. He can’t read music very well, and he can’t improvise. So how did Jake get accepted to the Music and Art Academy? He faked it.
Alongside an eclectic group of academy classmates, and with advice from his best friend, Jake tries to fit in at a school where things like garbage sculpting and writing art reviews of bird poop splatter are the norm. All is well until Jake discovers that the end-of-the-semester talent show is only two weeks away, and Jake is short one very important thing…talent. Or is he? It’s up to Jake to either find the talent that lies within or embarrass himself in front of the entire school. Light and humorous, with Knight’s illustrations adding to the fun, Jake’s story will likely appeal to many middle-grade readers, especially those who might otherwise be reluctant to pick up a book. While the artsy antics may be over-the-top at times, this is a story about something that most preteens can relate to: the struggle to find your authentic self. And in a world filled with books about wanting to fit in with the athletically gifted supercliques, this novel unabashedly celebrates the artsy crowd in all of its quirky, creative glory.
A fast and funny alternative to the Wimpy Kid. (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: March 28, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-553-52351-5
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Dec. 5, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2016
© 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.
