Authentically uncomfortable, a well-done modern attempt to explore self and community.
A 13-year-old witch just wants things to stay the way they are, so who needs a bat mitzvah?
Zippy—Zipporah Chava McConnell—doesn’t feel very Jewish. Her parents take her to synagogue for the High Holidays and halfheartedly follow Passover, but mostly they’re just an everyday, White, American family living in Atlanta. What’s special about Zippy is that she’s a witch. She collects items that make her feel witchy: black candles, birds’ eggs, a blue penny. She makes up spells, mantras that settle her anxiety or vanish pimples. Maybe Judaism itself is a little witchy, too. Sure, Zippy’s bat mitzvah parsha—the Torah reading she will recite—says “Thou shalt not tolerate a sorceress to live,” but even so, the Hebrew letters feel so…magical. And has Zippy somehow summoned a Jewish angel? Or maybe a dybbuk? How has she learned Hebrew overnight, and why does she suddenly know how to play the piano? Zippy dips her toe into the Jewish esoteric, finding parts that seem comfortably familiar to her homegrown occult witchcraft. But the creature Zippy has summoned is hurting her. Zippy’s awkwardness, from her fights with her best friend to the way she dabbles in both Judaism and witchcraft, is painfully, believably genuine. And as the rabbi teaches her, her struggles with Judaism and her attempts to make it fit into her witchiness are exemplars of Jewish learning.
Authentically uncomfortable, a well-done modern attempt to explore self and community. (Fantasy. 9-12)Pub Date: May 16, 2023
ISBN: 9780062836656
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Walden Pond Press/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: April 11, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2023
A real gem.
A 10-year old girl learns to adjust to a strange town, makes some fascinating friends, and fills the empty space in her heart thanks to a big old stray dog in this lyrical, moving, and enchanting book by a fresh new voice.
India Opal’s mama left when she was only three, and her father, “the preacher,” is absorbed in his own loss and in the work of his new ministry at the Open-Arms Baptist Church of Naomi [Florida]. Enter Winn-Dixie, a dog who “looked like a big piece of old brown carpet that had been left out in the rain.” But, this dog had a grin “so big that it made him sneeze.” And, as Opal says, “It’s hard not to immediately fall in love with a dog who has a good sense of humor.” Because of Winn-Dixie, Opal meets Miss Franny Block, an elderly lady whose papa built her a library of her own when she was just a little girl and she’s been the librarian ever since. Then, there’s nearly blind Gloria Dump, who hangs the empty bottle wreckage of her past from the mistake tree in her back yard. And, Otis, oh yes, Otis, whose music charms the gerbils, rabbits, snakes and lizards he’s let out of their cages in the pet store. Brush strokes of magical realism elevate this beyond a simple story of friendship to a well-crafted tale of community and fellowship, of sweetness, sorrow and hope. And, it’s funny, too.
A real gem. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: March 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-7636-0776-2
Page Count: 182
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2000
SEEN & HEARD
Charming, poignant, and thoughtfully woven.
An aspiring scientist and a budding artist become friends and help each other with dream projects.
Unfolding in mid-1980s Sacramento, California, this story stars 12-year-olds Rosalind and Benjamin as first-person narrators in alternating chapters. Ro’s father, a fellow space buff, was killed by a drunk driver; the rocket they were working on together lies unfinished in her closet. As for Benji, not only has his best friend, Amir, moved away, but the comic book holding the clue for locating his dad is also missing. Along with their profound personal losses, the protagonists share a fixation with the universe’s intriguing potential: Ro decides to complete the rocket and hopes to launch mementos of her father into outer space while Benji’s conviction that aliens and UFOs are real compels his imagination and creativity as an artist. An accident in science class triggers a chain of events forcing Benji and Ro, who is new to the school, to interact and unintentionally learn each other’s secrets. They resolve to find Benji’s dad—a famous comic-book artist—and partner to finish Ro’s rocket for the science fair. Together, they overcome technical, scheduling, and geographical challenges. Readers will be drawn in by amusing and fantastical elements in the comic book theme, high emotional stakes that arouse sympathy, and well-drawn character development as the protagonists navigate life lessons around grief, patience, self-advocacy, and standing up for others. Ro is biracial (Chinese/White); Benji is White.
Charming, poignant, and thoughtfully woven. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Jan. 12, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-06-300888-5
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2020
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