An exciting story highlighting critical environmental issues.
Dangers lurk beneath the ocean’s surface—but sometimes the risks aboveground can be even worse.
This follow-up to The Wildes: The Amazon (2023) delivers a fast-paced thrill ride involving poachers, endangered porpoises, and a sinister businessman. When the danger-prone Wilde family embarks on a mission in Mexico’s Sea of Cortez, it isn’t long before Asia and little brother Ring are mingling with the locals, getting to know the natural flora and fauna, and upsetting bad guys. The ecologically minded Wildes are preparing for the upcoming Vaquita Summit, designed to explore ecological concerns including how the highly endangered vaquitas, known as ghost porpoises, struggle to survive in captivity. Scientists, including the kids’ veterinarian father, Dr. Jack, and their conservation biologist mom, Dr. Jane, grapple with whether the benefits of penning the small porpoises for breeding to boost their population outweighs the likelihood of their dying from the stress of captivity. Engaging and informative nuggets are interspersed throughout. The siblings move through their adventures with distinct operating strategies: Ring is more interested in fishing and getting to know local people, while Asia is more committed to research and protecting the porpoises. While battling the elements—not to mention shady people more committed to tearing down the Wildes than uplifting the vaquitas—the kids once again face a boatload of challenges and must rely on their wits and teamwork.
An exciting story highlighting critical environmental issues. (Adventure. 9-12)Pub Date: Aug. 15, 2023
ISBN: 9781534113077
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Sleeping Bear Press
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2023
Entrancing and uplifting.
A small dog, the elderly woman who owns him, and a homeless girl come together to create a tale of serendipity.
Piper, almost 12, her parents, and her younger brother are at the bottom of a long slide toward homelessness. Finally in a family shelter, Piper finds that her newfound safety gives her the opportunity to reach out to someone who needs help even more. Jewel, mentally ill, lives in the park with her dog, Baby. Unwilling to leave her pet, and forbidden to enter the shelter with him, she struggles with the winter weather. Ree, also homeless and with a large dog, helps when she can, but after Jewel gets sick and is hospitalized, Baby’s taken to the animal shelter, and Ree can’t manage the complex issues alone. It’s Piper, using her best investigative skills, who figures out Jewel’s backstory. Still, she needs all the help of the shelter Firefly Girls troop that she joins to achieve her accomplishment: to raise enough money to provide Jewel and Baby with a secure, hopeful future and, maybe, with their kindness, to inspire a happier story for Ree. Told in the authentic alternating voices of loving child and loyal dog, this tale could easily slump into a syrupy melodrama, but Pyron lets her well-drawn characters earn their believable happy ending, step by challenging step, by reaching out and working together. Piper, her family, and Jewel present white; Pyron uses hair and naming convention, respectively, to cue Ree as black and Piper’s friend Gabriela as Latinx.
Entrancing and uplifting. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Aug. 13, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-06-283922-0
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: April 9, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2019
A pleasing premise for book lovers.
A fantasy-loving bookworm makes a wonderful, terrible bargain.
When sixth grader Poppy Woodlock’s historic preservationist parents move the family to the Oregon coast to work on the titular stately home, Poppy’s sure she’ll find magic. Indeed, the exiled water nymph in the manor’s ruined swimming pool grants a wish, but: “Magic isn’t free. It cosssts.” The price? Poppy’s favorite book, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. In return she receives Sampson, a winged lion cub who is everything Poppy could have hoped for. But she soon learns that the nymph didn’t take just her own physical book—she erased Narnia from Poppy’s world. And it’s just the first loss: Soon, Poppy’s grandmother’s journal’s gone, then The Odyssey, and more. The loss is heartbreaking, but Sampson’s a wonderful companion, particularly as Poppy’s finding middle school a tough adjustment. Hartman’s premise is beguiling—plenty of readers will identify with Poppy, both as a fellow bibliophile and as a kid struggling to adapt. Poppy’s repeatedly expressed faith that unveiling Sampson will bring some sort of vindication wears thin, but that does not detract from the central drama. It’s a pity that the named real-world books Poppy reads are notably lacking in diversity; a story about the power of literature so limited in imagination lets both itself and readers down. Main characters are cued White; there is racial diversity in the supporting cast. Chapters open with atmospheric spot art. (This review has been updated to reflect the final illustrations.)
A pleasing premise for book lovers. (Fantasy. 9-12)Pub Date: May 2, 2023
ISBN: 9780316448222
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2023
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