This series spinoff still brings the magic.
Meet Lucy Lancaster, best friend of series superstar Heidi Heckelbeck.
Though Heidi appears in this book, along with the girls’ other BFF, Bruce Bickerson, Lucy takes center stage. After Mrs. Welli assigns Bryce Beltran to be Lucy’s science class partner, Bryce isn’t pleased—both girls wanted to work with their own friends—and all but slams her desk into Lucy’s. Lucy wishes she could have a more polite and compliant partner like Heidi or Bruce. Suddenly she begins hiccupping, and Bryce instantly becomes sweetly agreeable. This is wonderful…isn’t it? More strange things occur; Lucy’s perplexed. Then she hiccups again and inadvertently finds herself sowing classroom chaos. Ms. Egli, the alert town librarian who’s visiting the class, notices, gives Lucy a golden library card with access to the Magical Library, and helps her to understand her powers. Like Heidi (though neither girl is yet aware of the other’s gift), Lucy is a witch! Engaging characters, a well-crafted setting, and quick pacing perfectly suit the target audience; Lucy promises to be a popular series star herself. Burris’ many illustrations portray Lucy with black curls, brown skin, and star-festooned glasses. Bryce and Ms. Egli are brown-skinned; most other figures are light-skinned.
This series spinoff still brings the magic. (Early chapter book. 5-9)Pub Date: Jan. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9781665963978
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Little Simon/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 28, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
This outing lacks the sophistication of such category standards as Clementine; here’s hoping English amps things up for...
A gentle voice and familiar pitfalls characterize this tale of a boy navigating the risky road to responsibility.
Gavin is new to his neighborhood and Carver Elementary. He likes his new friend, Richard, and has a typically contentious relationship with his older sister, Danielle. When Gavin’s desire to impress Richard sets off a disastrous chain of events, the boy struggles to evade responsibility for his actions. “After all, it isn’t his fault that Danielle’s snow globe got broken. Sure, he shouldn’t have been in her room—but then, she shouldn’t be keeping candy in her room to tempt him. Anybody would be tempted. Anybody!” opines Gavin once he learns the punishment for his crime. While Gavin has a charming Everyboy quality, and his aversion to Aunt Myrtle’s yapping little dog rings true, little about Gavin distinguishes him from other trouble-prone protagonists. He is, regrettably, forgettable. Coretta Scott King Honor winner English (Francie, 1999) is a teacher whose storytelling usually benefits from her day job. Unfortunately, the pizzazz of classroom chaos is largely absent from this series opener.
This outing lacks the sophistication of such category standards as Clementine; here’s hoping English amps things up for subsequent volumes. (Fiction. 6-9)Pub Date: Dec. 17, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-547-97044-8
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 1, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A charming friendship story and great setup for future books.
Curious about the Big Wide World outside his Sasquatch community, Hugo makes a friend who is of it.
Sasquatch Hugo’s bedroom is inside a cave and possesses the charming feature of a small stream running through it that he can sail his little toy boat on. It’s cool, but he yearns to see the Big Wide World. When he asks his smart friend Gigi if a Sasquatch might become a sailor, she says it’s possible but would be difficult—the primary rule of their people is to not be seen by Humans. Then, in everyone’s favorite Hide and Go Sneak class, which is held outside, a Human appears; Hugo laughs at the sight, drawing Human attention in a taboo-breaking mistake. Shortly after, Hugo’s toy boat floats into the cave with a Human toy—soon, it’s facilitating a pen-pal–type relationship that’s derailed when Hugo confesses to being a Sasquatch and Human Boone, a budding cryptozoologist, doesn’t believe him. How Hugo and Boone resolve this misapprehension and become friends in a joint search for the Ogopogo concludes this series opener. Potter keeps the third-person narrative tightly focused on Hugo’s perspective, and the details she uses to flesh out the Sasquatch world are delightfully playful. Sala’s drawings depict a homey Sasquatch cavern community, Boone as a freckled, white boy, and Hugo as a hairily benevolent behemoth.
A charming friendship story and great setup for future books. (final art unseen) (Fantasy. 5-9)Pub Date: April 10, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4197-2859-4
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Dec. 10, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2018
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