This light tale is weighted down by mediocre storytelling and a convoluted plot.
Amirah restores birthday magic to the neighborhood.
Strange things are happening in Amirah’s neighborhood. She missed her friend’s birthday party because she didn’t receive the invitation. She discovers that her brother missed a friend’s birthday for the same reason. Then her magical book of birthday-cake recipes starts to fade in her hands, and when she visits the Magical Land of Birthdays in her dreams, it doesn’t feel right—the magic is missing. With some good advice from an elderly friend, Amirah knows she must trust her heart, which tells her to return to the Magical Land of Birthdays to figure out what is going on. Her B-Buds—birthday buddies who share her birthday—are hesitant, but they trust Amirah enough to follow her around as she picks up clues. She eventually solves the mystery with her own birthday magic and is crowned princess of the Magical Land of Birthdays. Amirah is a likable-enough protagonist with an enviable family and cloyingly adoring friends. Her obsession with birthdays to the exclusion of any other interests feels a bit hollow and unsatisfying. The mystery of fading books and disappearing invitations is enough to draw readers in, but the multiple trips to and from the Magical Land, both in dreams and while awake, feel disruptive enough to take readers out of the story. The multicultural cast includes children who are Mexican, Jamaican, and Japanese; Amirah’s name is Arabic.
This light tale is weighted down by mediocre storytelling and a convoluted plot. (Fantasy. 6-11)Pub Date: Oct. 13, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4197-4028-2
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Aug. 31, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
A close encounter of the best kind.
Left behind when the space bus departs, a child discovers that the moon isn’t as lifeless as it looks.
While the rest of the space-suited class follows the teacher like ducklings, one laggard carrying crayons and a sketchbook sits down to draw our home planet floating overhead, falls asleep, and wakes to see the bus zooming off. The bright yellow bus, the gaggle of playful field-trippers, and even the dull gray boulders strewn over the equally dull gray lunar surface have a rounded solidity suggestive of Plasticine models in Hare’s wordless but cinematic scenes…as do the rubbery, one-eyed, dull gray creatures (think: those stress-busting dolls with ears that pop out when squeezed) that emerge from the regolith. The mutual shock lasts but a moment before the lunarians eagerly grab the proffered crayons to brighten the bland gray setting with silly designs. The creatures dive into the dust when the bus swoops back down but pop up to exchange goodbye waves with the errant child, who turns out to be an olive-skinned kid with a mop of brown hair last seen drawing one of their new friends with the one crayon—gray, of course—left in the box. Body language is expressive enough in this debut outing to make a verbal narrative superfluous.
A close encounter of the best kind. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: May 14, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-8234-4253-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Margaret Ferguson/Holiday House
Review Posted Online: Feb. 5, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An effort as insubstantial as any spirit.
Eleven-year-old Maria Russo helps her charlatan mother hoodwink customers, but Maria has a spirited secret.
Maria’s mother, the psychic Madame Destine, cons widows out of their valuables with the assistance of their apartment building’s super, Mr. Fox. Madame Destine home-schools Maria, and because Destine is afraid of unwanted attention, she forbids Maria from talking to others. Maria is allowed to go to the library, where new librarian Ms. Madigan takes an interest in Maria that may cause her trouble. Meanwhile, Sebastian, Maria’s new upstairs neighbor, would like to be friends. All this interaction makes it hard for Maria to keep her secret: that she is visited by Edward, a spirit who tells her the actual secrets of Madame Destine’s clients via spirit writing. When Edward urges Maria to help Mrs. Fisher, Madame Destine’s most recent mark, Maria must overcome her shyness and her fear of her mother—helping Mrs. Fisher may be the key to the mysterious past Maria uncovers and a brighter future. Alas, picture-book–creator Ford’s middle-grade debut is a muddled, melodramatic mystery with something of an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink feel: In addition to the premise, there’s a tragically dead father, a mysterious family tree, and the Beat poets. Sluggish pacing; stilted, unrealistic dialogue; cartoonishly stock characters; and unattractive, flat illustrations make this one to miss. Maria and Sebastian are both depicted with brown skin, hers lighter than his; the other principals appear to be white.
An effort as insubstantial as any spirit. (author’s note) (Paranormal mystery. 7-10)Pub Date: July 21, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-20567-4
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Christy Ottaviano/Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2020
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