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THE MARVELOUS LAND OF SNERGS

Name: THE MARVELOUS LAND OF SNERGS
Author: E.A. Wyke-Smith
ISBN: 978-1-60945-808-9

by E.A. Wyke-Smith ; retold by Veronica Cossanteli ; illustrated by Melissa Castrillón ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 30, 2022

A breezy refresh for a little-known story with all sorts of intriguing associations.

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A reworked version of a classic 1927 British fairy story by E.A. Wyke-Smith that strongly influenced J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit.

Cossanteli takes two wayward orphans from the rule-bound confines of the Sunny Bay Home for Superfluous and Accidentally Parentless Children (presided over by Miss Watkyns, a spit-spot mistress distinctly akin to Mary Poppins) into a magic land of goblin-infested swamps and tunnels, armored knights, giant crocopotami, and like terrifying threats. There are also witches good and evil and, most prominently, Snergs, who are a race of short, merry, food- and story-loving folk with names like Wilmus and Pompo. Punctuated by the occasional feast (and sharp comments about the shortcomings of bad parents), the round of exciting chases, captures, and narrow escapes culminate in multiple transformations, from a physical one for fiendishly clever and scary witch Malicia and inner ones for electively mute orphan Flora and her unschooled friend Pip to their Snerg guardian Gorbo’s makeover from bumbling scatterbrain to hero, loyal and true. Castrillón supplies elegantly antique montages and spot art, with occasional views of the light-skinned central characters. This story, with clever wordplay and echoes of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, and Peter Pan, will delight.

A breezy refresh for a little-known story with all sorts of intriguing associations. (Light fantasy. 7-11)

Pub Date: Aug. 30, 2022

ISBN: 978-1-60945-808-9

Page Count: 307

Publisher: Europa Editions

Review Posted Online: July 12, 2022

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2022

Categories:

CHILDREN'S DRAGONS & MYTHICAL CREATURES | CHILDREN'S SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S FAMILY

- BOOK REVIEW
THE EXTINCTS
by Veronica Cossanteli ; illustrated by Roman Muradov

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LITTLE DAYMOND LEARNS TO EARN

by Daymond John ; illustrated by Nicole Miles ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 21, 2023

It’s hard to argue with success, but guides that actually do the math will be more useful to budding capitalists.

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How to raise money for a coveted poster: put your friends to work!

John, founder of the FUBU fashion line and a Shark Tank venture capitalist, offers a self-referential blueprint for financial success. Having only half of the $10 he needs for a Minka J poster, Daymond forks over $1 to buy a plain T-shirt, paints a picture of the pop star on it, sells it for $5, and uses all of his cash to buy nine more shirts. Then he recruits three friends to decorate them with his design and help sell them for an unspecified amount (from a conveniently free and empty street-fair booth) until they’re gone. The enterprising entrepreneur reimburses himself for the shirts and splits the remaining proceeds, which leaves him with enough for that poster as well as a “brand-new business book,” while his friends express other fiscal strategies: saving their share, spending it all on new art supplies, or donating part and buying a (math) book with the rest. (In a closing summation, the author also suggests investing in stocks, bonds, or cryptocurrency.) Though Miles cranks up the visual energy in her sparsely detailed illustrations by incorporating bright colors and lots of greenbacks, the actual advice feels a bit vague. Daymond is Black; most of the cast are people of color. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

It’s hard to argue with success, but guides that actually do the math will be more useful to budding capitalists. (Picture book. 7-9)

Pub Date: March 21, 2023

ISBN: 978-0-593-56727-2

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Random House

Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2022

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2023

Categories:

CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

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TUCK EVERLASTING

by Natalie Babbitt ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 1, 1975

However the compelling fitness of theme and event and the apt but unexpected imagery (the opening sentences compare the...

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At a time when death has become an acceptable, even voguish subject in children's fiction, Natalie Babbitt comes through with a stylistic gem about living forever.

Protected Winnie, the ten-year-old heroine, is not immortal, but when she comes upon young Jesse Tuck drinking from a secret spring in her parents' woods, she finds herself involved with a family who, having innocently drunk the same water some 87 years earlier, haven't aged a moment since. Though the mood is delicate, there is no lack of action, with the Tucks (previously suspected of witchcraft) now pursued for kidnapping Winnie; Mae Tuck, the middle aged mother, striking and killing a stranger who is onto their secret and would sell the water; and Winnie taking Mae's place in prison so that the Tucks can get away before she is hanged from the neck until....? Though Babbitt makes the family a sad one, most of their reasons for discontent are circumstantial and there isn't a great deal of wisdom to be gleaned from their fate or Winnie's decision not to share it.

However the compelling fitness of theme and event and the apt but unexpected imagery (the opening sentences compare the first week in August when this takes place to "the highest seat of a Ferris wheel when it pauses in its turning") help to justify the extravagant early assertion that had the secret about to be revealed been known at the time of the action, the very earth "would have trembled on its axis like a beetle on a pin." (Fantasy. 9-11)