A heartwarming brother dynamic blends well with a hint of the supernatural.
Wiist’s middle-grade novel follows two brothers whose summer of ’83 entails run-ins with extraordinarily bizarre kids in the woods.
Peter and his younger brother, Andrew, trek through the forest near their family home. They plan to build forts (one apiece) until their construction is interrupted by someone shooting rubber bullets at them. They soon encounter a boy, who, despite packing a loaded “toy gun,” is playful. He’s peculiar, as well—evasive when asked his name and frighteningly nimble when hopping between trees. Peter and Andrew continue to return to the woods as the summer rolls on, and the boy even works on Peter’s cabin-like fort when the brothers are away. Peter meets a girl who’s just as mysterious as the boy. The boy claims he has a rare comic book for trade, but is this a sign that the two figures from the forest are somehow trying to rope Peter and Andrew into something nefarious? And will learning who or what the boy and girl truly are help the brothers keep themselves safe? The ambiguity in Wiist’s story rarely wavers. In several instances, the boy and girl appear to be typical adolescents, as evidenced by the boy’s affinity for comic books. But there’s so much mystery surrounding them (they easily speed through labyrinthine sections of the woods) that they come across as eerie. At the same time, the brothers’ relationship is endearing in its believability. Andrew, for example, may annoy Peter with his socially awkward inability to lie or keep his mouth shut, but there’s no doubt that the siblings have each other’s backs. They propel a story that effectively reflects the era, with nods to specific movies and TV shows (and kids wielding spud guns). Wiist also supplies the book’s colorful full-page artwork, which sublimely depicts such images as a bird’s-eye-view of Peter’s cliffside fort-in-progress and Andrew aiming his trusty slingshot.
A heartwarming brother dynamic blends well with a hint of the supernatural.Pub Date: June 6, 2025
ISBN: 9781836907749
Page Count: 347
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Dec. 9, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
Charming, poignant, and thoughtfully woven.
An aspiring scientist and a budding artist become friends and help each other with dream projects.
Unfolding in mid-1980s Sacramento, California, this story stars 12-year-olds Rosalind and Benjamin as first-person narrators in alternating chapters. Ro’s father, a fellow space buff, was killed by a drunk driver; the rocket they were working on together lies unfinished in her closet. As for Benji, not only has his best friend, Amir, moved away, but the comic book holding the clue for locating his dad is also missing. Along with their profound personal losses, the protagonists share a fixation with the universe’s intriguing potential: Ro decides to complete the rocket and hopes to launch mementos of her father into outer space while Benji’s conviction that aliens and UFOs are real compels his imagination and creativity as an artist. An accident in science class triggers a chain of events forcing Benji and Ro, who is new to the school, to interact and unintentionally learn each other’s secrets. They resolve to find Benji’s dad—a famous comic-book artist—and partner to finish Ro’s rocket for the science fair. Together, they overcome technical, scheduling, and geographical challenges. Readers will be drawn in by amusing and fantastical elements in the comic book theme, high emotional stakes that arouse sympathy, and well-drawn character development as the protagonists navigate life lessons around grief, patience, self-advocacy, and standing up for others. Ro is biracial (Chinese/White); Benji is White.
Charming, poignant, and thoughtfully woven. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Jan. 12, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-06-300888-5
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2020
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