Although the message is sometimes spelled out instead of implied, it’s a minor flaw in this worthy, heartwarming effort....
Can an oft-rejected orphan settle into the stable, loving home of a pair of gentle sisters who are retired missionaries to Africa?
Twelve-year-old Wilma Sue’s been bounced from home to home in her short life. Now it’s hard for her to believe she even deserves a real home. In a winsomely attractive first-person narration, she relates her growing wonder with Ruth, a social activist, and Naomi, who bakes cakes that are somehow infused with magic. Naomi brings the cakes to deserving members of their tightknit community, each confection perfectly matched to its needy recipient. The sisters also keep chickens that move from being Wilma Sue’s responsibility to her calling. Penny, a girl who lives just down the street seems like the only obstruction to happiness. In many ways, she is more damaged than Wilma Sue, struggling to satisfy her widowed mother’s unmet needs, an impossible task. Magnin maintains a delicate balance between a fablelike fantasy and reality fiction as Wilma Sue gradually discovers that not only is she eminently worthy of love, but that she can also help the people around her by loving them. Wilma’s captivating, clever language and short declarative sentences perfectly exemplify her wary but reverential view of the world.
Although the message is sometimes spelled out instead of implied, it’s a minor flaw in this worthy, heartwarming effort. (Fantasy. 10-15)Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-0310733331
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Zonderkidz
Review Posted Online: Nov. 30, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
Powerful and awakening.
A 14-year-old Ashkenazi Jewish transgender boy harnesses supernatural powers and pursues his world-saving destiny.
Every week, A Izenson’s parents drag him to Save Our Sons and Daughters, a conversion-therapy group for families with transgender youth. Not many teens last long there before they disappear for “further treatment.” After Greek American group member Yarrow, one of A’s only friends, meets this fate, A sneaks over to Yarrow’s house to find out what happened. When he’s caught eavesdropping on Yarrow’s parents, a being made of garbage sweeps in to aid his escape. The creature describes itself as a golem, though its origins are a mystery. All the golem knows is that it awoke to help A fulfill his destiny to save Yarrow—and the world—before the end of Yom Kippur. At first, A is certain the golem has chosen the wrong person. But when he rescues his friend Sal, a white butch lesbian trans girl, from a demon who tries to devour her during a SOSAD meeting, he not only embraces his power, but also starts to see himself as a hero and Sal as his sidekick. Lukoff both explores and then subverts the chosen-one trope through A’s battle with his personal demons. The story is set in 2023, and the fantasy conflict is grounded in serious real-world problems—the ongoing impact of Covid-19, alarming rates of homelessness and suicide among LGBTQ+ youth, and anti-trans legislation. The resolution is both honest and hopeful.
Powerful and awakening. (note on research, note on resources) (Fantasy. 10-14)Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2025
ISBN: 9780593618981
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: Sept. 28, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Thought-provoking and full of heart; a genuinely pleasurable read.
Before he ages out of seeing Holy Beings, Nathan must find water monster Dew a mentor.
A couple of years after the events of Healer of the Water Monster (2021), Nathan’s life in Phoenix, Arizona, is changing—he and his mother, Janet, are moving in with Janet’s boyfriend and his son, the book’s co-protagonist, Edward. More than that, Nathan’s going through puberty and knows his time with Dew is limited—her new guardian will be Edward. But to ensure that Dew learns the water monster songs, she needs a mentor. Nathan wants it to be powerful water monster Yitoo Bi’aanii, who eagerly returns to the Fourth World. Upon seeing how her river has dwindled, Yitoo declares that an Enemy is stealing the water. The quest to thwart the Enemy is quickly complicated as the stakes rise and the heroes face conflicting loyalties. The environmentalist narrative embraces nuance and complications, avoiding easy answers without undermining the possibility of a hopeful future. Edward, newly informed of his Diné family’s brutal relocation era story, also struggles with inherited trauma, while Yitoo, who was witness to the violence, carries the atrocities with her. Additionally, Edward grapples with the fact that his late mother was White and with being the only household member who is not fully Diné. The bittersweet ending is as beautiful as the prose describing the fantastical journey to get there.
Thought-provoking and full of heart; a genuinely pleasurable read. (author’s note, glossary, note from Cynthia Leitich Smith) (Fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: May 23, 2023
ISBN: 9780062990433
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Heartdrum
Review Posted Online: April 11, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
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