A brief fantasy tale that may appeal to readers who aren’t usually fans of the genre.
An 11-year-old girl falls into a parallel world of fantastical creatures in this illustrated novel for readers.
Kindhearted, book-loving Sarah is resolved to make the best of her family’s move from New York City to her parents’ dream home in rural Connecticut. While exploring the shed in the backyard, she discovers Vesper, a gnome that she inadvertently revives from a frozen statue state, and is compelled to follow him back to his homeland, which is plagued by a struggle between his fellow gnomes and their presumed enemies, the trolls. Plot-driven chapters that emphasize characters over worldbuilding will draw a variety of readers into this adventure, and straightforward, humorous third-person narration keeps the twisting, turning story moving. Though character development is minimal, the situations that are presented allow Sarah’s empathy and understanding to take on a pivotal importance in a way that feels fairly natural, if a bit unsubtle in its messaging. Black-and-white vignettes are interspersed throughout, providing fuzzy, soft-edged imagery for the creatures. The humanoid beings in the story seem to assume a white default, and there are no textual details about Sarah’s race or culture, though her surname is Arroyo, suggesting that her family may be of Hispanic descent.
A brief fantasy tale that may appeal to readers who aren’t usually fans of the genre. (Fantasy. 8-11)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-947159-59-4
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Red Chair Press
Review Posted Online: June 2, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2020
However the compelling fitness of theme and event and the apt but unexpected imagery (the opening sentences compare the...
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.
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1975
ISBN: 0312369816
Page Count: 164
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: April 13, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1975
A fizzy mix of low humor and brisk action, with promise of more of both to come.
Heroic deeds await Isaac after his little sister runs into the school basement and is captured by elves.
Even though their school is a spooky old castle transplanted stone by stone from Germany, Isaac and his two friends, Max and Emma, little suspect that an entire magical kingdom lies beneath—a kingdom run by elves, policed by oversized rats in uniform, and populated by captives who start out human but undergo transformative “weirding.” These revelations await Isaac and sidekicks as they nerve themselves to trail his bossy younger sib, Lily, through a shadowy storeroom and into a tunnel, across a wide lake, and into a city lit by half-human fireflies, where they are cast together into a dungeon. Can they escape before they themselves start changing? Gibson pits his doughty rescuers against such adversaries as an elven monarch who emits truly kingly belches and a once-human jailer with a self-picking nose. Tests of mettle range from a riddle contest to a face-off with the menacing head rat Shelfliver, and a helter-skelter chase finally leads rescuers and rescued back to the aboveground. Plainly, though, there is further rescuing to be done.
A fizzy mix of low humor and brisk action, with promise of more of both to come. (Fantasy. 9-11)Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-62370-255-7
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Capstone Young Readers
Review Posted Online: June 28, 2015
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