An original tale of family love, scientific passion, and a truly epic journey of self-discovery.
Instead of a lost kitten, 11-year-old Stella “Bug” Rodriguez rescues a black hole she names Larry (“short for Singularity, which I’d read is a place of infinite gravity at the heart of a black hole”).
For a lonely, precocious, science-loving girl who idolizes Carl Sagan, nothing could be better—at least, at first. Soon the chaos of the actual black hole forces Stella to confront the metaphorical black hole of sadness left by the death of her father. Her intense grief—equaled only by her fear of confronting it head on—contrasts with the wacky humor of a slightly domesticated black hole that consumes everything, including Stinky Stu, the class hamster, a neighbor’s garden gnomes, and the new family puppy. Stella and her little brother, Cosmo, embark on a surreal journey, printed in white type on a black background, through Larry’s depths in search of the dog, ordering up what they need as if Larry were a cosmic, malfunctioning Siri (“ ‘LAMPS!” we shouted. “NOT STAMPS. LAMPS! SWALLOW LIGHT. LIGHT!” A moment later we saw a kite sail by”). Throughout the book Stella addresses her father directly as “you,” a potent reminder of the fresh intensity of her loss. Set in 1977, this quirky story is enhanced by charming pen-and-ink illustrations. Aside from Stella’s surname, which suggests the family is Latinx, race and ethnicity are unspecified.
An original tale of family love, scientific passion, and a truly epic journey of self-discovery. (Fantasy. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-399-53913-8
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: June 26, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2017
The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often...
A successful juvenile by the beloved New Yorker writer portrays a farm episode with an imaginative twist that makes a poignant, humorous story of a pig, a spider and a little girl.
Young Fern Arable pleads for the life of runt piglet Wilbur and gets her father to sell him to a neighbor, Mr. Zuckerman. Daily, Fern visits the Zuckermans to sit and muse with Wilbur and with the clever pen spider Charlotte, who befriends him when he is lonely and downcast. At the news of Wilbur's forthcoming slaughter, campaigning Charlotte, to the astonishment of people for miles around, spins words in her web. "Some Pig" comes first. Then "Terrific"—then "Radiant". The last word, when Wilbur is about to win a show prize and Charlotte is about to die from building her egg sac, is "Humble". And as the wonderful Charlotte does die, the sadness is tempered by the promise of more spiders next spring.
The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often informative as amusing, and the whole tenor of appealing wit and pathos will make fine entertainment for reading aloud, too.Pub Date: Oct. 15, 1952
ISBN: 978-0-06-026385-0
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1952
PERSPECTIVES
SEEN & HEARD
Poignant and heartwarming.
Zephyrina the cat, the “Robin Hood of felines,” rescues discarded toys so they can have new lives.
Zephyrina brings toys back to the apartment she shares with Elizaveta and her daughter, Dasha, refugees from war-torn Ukraine. Dasha reconditions Zephyrina’s rescues and sets them outside for three days, just in case they have owners who want to reclaim them. Afterward, they join the other toys in the parlor—the Second Chances Home for the Tossed and Treasured. Dasha and Elizaveta don’t know that the toys are sentient. At midnight they abandon their rigid daytime postures to cavort and play, overseen by their leader, Pocket, a tiny mascot bear made to comfort soldiers during World War I. One night, Zephyrina brings back a dirty old bear, and Pocket is astounded. The new arrival, Berwon, might come from a lost shipment of the first-ever stuffed bears, sent from Germany to the U.S. in 1903—and if so, he’s worth a fortune. In the ensuing antics, the unpleasant villain Picky Vicky covets Berwon, and a kind museum curator does, too, but for different reasons. Applegate’s writing is exquisitely nuanced; she couches profound themes in accessible language that depicts relatable situations. Gentle, generous Elizaveta and Dasha poignantly underscore the human impact of wars. Santoso’s enchanting, delicate, black-and-white illustrations bring the timeless feeling of a classic to this hopeful, humanizing story of the distressed looking out for each other.
Poignant and heartwarming. (author’s note) (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 9, 2025
ISBN: 9781250904362
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: July 3, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025
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