Tries to accurately convey the experience of invisible illnesses but is hindered by its pacing and characterization.
When Liam falls ill without explanation, his friend becomes convinced they need to break a fairy curse to cure him.
Four years ago, Liam and fairy-obsessed Alaina found a hidden grove covered in mirrors. Alaina was sure the items were fairy treasure, so when they accidentally broke one—and had nothing to leave in payment—Alaina worried the fairies would punish them. Now 12, Alaina and Liam have grown apart, but she still runs to his aid when he collapses and crashes his bike. At urgent care, Liam sees a white fox running into a picture on the wall and a mirror, yet the doctor finds nothing wrong. After Liam confides in Alaina that he doesn’t know why he sometimes feels extreme fatigue and can’t focus, she admits she’s always wondered whether developing Type 1 diabetes was her fairy curse; what if exhaustion is Liam’s punishment? With doctors baffled and his other friends picking on him for falling asleep in class, Liam works with Alaina to break his curse before it becomes permanent like hers. This lightly illustrated dual-perspective tale of two kids navigating chronic illness offers age-appropriate disability representation, but it lacks a solid middle-grade voice. The tweens’ dialogue contains outdated slang and adultlike narration, as well as numerous quotes from other works that become tedious. Liam reads white; contextual clues may point to Alaina’s having some Latine heritage.
Tries to accurately convey the experience of invisible illnesses but is hindered by its pacing and characterization. (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: April 2, 2024
ISBN: 9781639932313
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Shadow Mountain
Review Posted Online: Jan. 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2024
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
Telgemeier’s bold colors, superior visual storytelling, and unusual subject matter will keep readers emotionally engaged and...
Catrina narrates the story of her mixed-race (Latino/white) family’s move from Southern California to Bahía de la Luna on the Northern California coast.
Dad has a new job, but it’s little sister Maya’s lungs that motivate the move: she has had cystic fibrosis since birth—a degenerative breathing condition. Despite her health, Maya loves adventure, even if her lungs suffer for it and even when Cat must follow to keep her safe. When Carlos, a tall, brown, and handsome teen Ghost Tour guide introduces the sisters to the Bahía ghosts—most of whom were Spanish-speaking Mexicans when alive—they fascinate Maya and she them, but the terrified Cat wants only to get herself and Maya back to safety. When the ghost adventure leads to Maya’s hospitalization, Cat blames both herself and Carlos, which makes seeing him at school difficult. As Cat awakens to the meaning of Halloween and Day of the Dead in this strange new home, she comes to understand the importance of the ghosts both to herself and to Maya. Telgemeier neatly balances enough issues that a lesser artist would split them into separate stories and delivers as much delight textually as visually. The backmatter includes snippets from Telgemeier’s sketchbook and a photo of her in Día makeup.
Telgemeier’s bold colors, superior visual storytelling, and unusual subject matter will keep readers emotionally engaged and unable to put down this compelling tale. (Graphic fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 13, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-545-54061-2
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: July 1, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2016
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