A beautifully executed, fantastical what-if tale for right now.
An Australian family sets off on an adventure and gets stranded in an enchanted valley for seven years.
Honey lives with her Nanna, Momma, Papa, and younger brother, Rumi, in the valley of the horses. They arrived on Honey’s fourth birthday, and now her eleventh is approaching, and her father is sick. Honey decides she’ll be the one to find an ambulance for Papa, even if it means heading back to “the wide world,” which they originally left because of a “terrible sickness.” Nanna’s grandfather said that he lived in a valley of magical horses for seven years when he was a child. Now Moongold, one of the special horse protectors of the valley, helps Honey find her way across the bridge the family originally used when they arrived (though Honey worries it might disappear, separating her from them forever). Each chapter ends with a text message from the family members left behind, enabling readers to piece together the situation and understand more than Honey does. Once Honey leaves the valley, the perspective shifts between her and Rumi as their storylines converge. Reminiscent of fairy tales and fish-out-of-water tales such as Brigadoon and Margaret Peterson Haddix’s Running Out of Time, this speculative story has a just-right mix of fantasy and reality, excellent descriptions of the settings (both enchanted and realistic), and a strong main character with an important quest. Honey and her family read white.
A beautifully executed, fantastical what-if tale for right now. (Q&A with the author) (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: April 23, 2024
ISBN: 9781772783117
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Pajama Press
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2024
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The whimsy is slight—the story is not—and both its interest and its vocabulary are for the youngest members of this age...
Beverly Cleary has written all kinds of books (the most successful ones about the irrepressible Henry Huggins) but this is her first fantasy.
Actually it's plain clothes fantasy grounded in the everyday—except for the original conceit of a mouse who can talk and ride a motorcycle. A toy motorcycle, which belongs to Keith, a youngster, who comes to the hotel where Ralph lives with his family; Ralph and Keith become friends, Keith gives him a peanut butter sandwich, but finally Ralph loses the motorcycle—it goes out with the dirty linen. Both feel dreadfully; it was their favorite toy; but after Keith gets sick, and Ralph manages to find an aspirin for him in a nearby room, and the motorcycle is returned, it is left with Ralph....
The whimsy is slight—the story is not—and both its interest and its vocabulary are for the youngest members of this age group. (Fantasy. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 22, 1965
ISBN: 0380709244
Page Count: 180
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Oct. 16, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1965
BOOK TO SCREEN
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