Though a pleasant tale of friendship, the melding of the two well-known stories enriches neither
Sleeping Beauty meets Jack the Giant-Killer in this retelling.
Lady Briar and Princess Rose are twins—but neither one knows this. When they were born—Rose with a flawless face and Briar with a protruding brow and drooping eyelid—the horrified king declared he could not raise such an ugly child as his heir. Briar, raised as the orphan of a minor noble, grows up best friends with Rose, though most other children and adults at court treat her with cruelty for her ugliness. Neither girl knows of the fairies who attended their christening and gave them a smattering of blessings, nor do they know of the wicked fairy who laid a curse that will take effect on their 16th birthday. As the girls grow, they become friends with Jack, a devastatingly poor villager. Together they form a secret society: the Giant Killers! The Giant Killers know that when they’re big enough, they’ll defeat the wicked giant who is always stealing their tiny kingdom’s food and treasure, leaving the kingdom poor and the villagers starving. The two intertwined fairy tales, with white characters in a Christian, medieval Europe–esque setting, proceed as expected, complicated only by the presence of Briar. Both plotting and writing feel underdone, with arbitrary plot elements and character swings driving events.
Though a pleasant tale of friendship, the melding of the two well-known stories enriches neither . (Fantasy. 9-11)Pub Date: June 11, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-328-95005-5
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: March 16, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2019
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
Certain to elicit both gales of giggles and winces of sympathy (not to mention recognition) from young readers.
First volume of a planned three, this edited version of an ongoing online serial records a middle-school everykid’s triumphs and (more often) tribulations through the course of a school year.
Largely through his own fault, mishaps seem to plague Greg at every turn, from the minor freak-outs of finding himself permanently seated in class between two pierced stoners and then being saddled with his mom for a substitute teacher, to being forced to wrestle in gym with a weird classmate who has invited him to view his “secret freckle.” Presented in a mix of legible “hand-lettered” text and lots of simple cartoon illustrations with the punch lines often in dialogue balloons, Greg’s escapades, unwavering self-interest and sardonic commentary are a hoot and a half.
Certain to elicit both gales of giggles and winces of sympathy (not to mention recognition) from young readers. (Fiction. 9-11)Pub Date: April 1, 2007
ISBN: 0-8109-9313-9
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2007
SEEN & HEARD
PERSPECTIVES
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