An affecting, sweet tale about understanding and perseverance.
A tween ice skater struggles to balance her busy home life and the dream of achieving a solo routine in this debut middle-grade novel.
Laney Parker can’t tolerate not skating. At her skating club in New York’s Finger Lakes region, she’s a “spinner” —not ranked high enough to perform an individual routine in front of an audience. But this year, the coaches will choose three worthy spinners for a solo at the club’s spring show. Laney is certain she has a shot, if she can just pull off a double loop. Distractions, however, are ample. For one, new skater Malia Davis represents stiff competition and cozies up to (read: tries to “steal”) Laney’s bestie, Abby. And it’s maple season, so her family is hard at work processing sap into maple syrup to sell. Any skater who misses practice is automatically disqualified for a solo, so Laney will need both focus and determination. Osburn lays out many hurdles for Laney, like a fellow skater who keeps verbally skewering all her teammates. The remarkable, resilient young protagonist has a tendency to be self-serving but is compassionate enough to recognize that others have problems, too. She’s supported by a dynamic cast that showcases a variety of personalities. Laney’s two-year-old brother Levi, for example, is so deep in his own little world that the Parkers grow concerned, and surely there’s a reason that neighbor/schoolmate Mason is always at the farm helping out. Not only does the novel teach important lessons about family and friendships and overcoming selfishness, but it’s also full of fascinating details about ice-skating and making maple syrup. By the end, readers may find themselves drawn to many of the characters, including a few unexpected ones.
An affecting, sweet tale about understanding and perseverance.Pub Date: March 1, 2024
ISBN: 9798878916790
Page Count: 179
Publisher: Little Red Wagon Books
Review Posted Online: June 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An absorbing fantasy centered on a resilient female protagonist facing growth, change, and self-empowerment.
In Florence’s middle-grade fantasy novel, a young girl’s heart is tested in the face of an evil, spreading Darkness.
Eleven-year-old Lydia, “freckle-cheeked and round-eyed, with hair the color of pine bark and fair skin,” is struggling with the knowledge that she has reached the age to apprentice as an herbalist. Lydia is reluctant to leave her beloved, magical Mulberry Glen and her cozy Housetree in the woods—she’ll miss Garder, the Glen’s respected philosopher; her fairy guardian Pit; her human friend Livy; and even the mischievous part-elf, part-imp, part-human twins Zale and Zamilla. But the twins go missing after hearing of a soul-sapping Darkness that has swallowed a forest and is creeping into minds and engulfing entire towns. They have secretly left to find a rare fruit that, it is said, will stop the Darkness if thrown into the heart of the mountain that rises out of the lethal forest. Lydia follows, determined to find the twins before they, too, fall victim to the Darkness. During her journey, accompanied by new friends, she gradually realizes that she herself has a dangerous role to play in the quest to stop the Darkness. In this well-crafted fantasy, Florence skillfully equates the physical manifestation of Darkness with the feelings of insecurity and powerlessness that Lydia first struggles with when thinking of leaving the Glen. Such negative thoughts grow more intrusive the closer she and her friends come to the Darkness—and to Lydia’s ultimate, powerfully rendered test of character, which leads to a satisfyingly realistic, not quite happily-ever-after ending. Highlights include a delightfully haunting, reality-shifting library and a deft sprinkling of Latin throughout the text; Pit’s pet name for Lydia is mea flosculus (“my little flower”). Fine-lined ink drawings introducing each chapter add a pleasing visual element to this well-grounded fairy tale.
An absorbing fantasy centered on a resilient female protagonist facing growth, change, and self-empowerment.Pub Date: Jan. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9781956393095
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Waxwing Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 14, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Fast-paced and plot-driven.
In his latest, prolific author Gratz takes on Hitler’s Olympic Games.
When 13-year-old American gymnast Evie Harris arrives in Berlin to compete in the 1936 Olympic Games, she has one goal: stardom. If she can bring home a gold medal like her friend, the famous equestrian-turned-Hollywood-star Mary Brooks, she might be able to lift her family out of their Dust Bowl poverty. But someone slips a strange note under Evie’s door, and soon she’s dodging Heinz Fischer, the Hitler Youth member assigned to host her, and meeting strangers who want to make use of her gymnastic skills—to rob a bank. As the games progress, Evie begins to see the moral issues behind their sparkling facade—the antisemitism and racism inherent in Nazi ideology and the way Hitler is using the competition to support and promote these beliefs. And she also agrees to rob the bank. Gratz goes big on the Mission Impossible–style heist, which takes center stage over the actual competitions, other than Jesse Owens’ famous long jump. A lengthy and detailed author’s note provides valuable historical context, including places where Gratz adapted the facts for storytelling purposes (although there’s no mention of the fact that before 1952, Olympic equestrian sports were limited to male military officers). With an emphasis on the plot, many of the characters feel defined primarily by how they’re suffering under the Nazis, such as the fictional diver Ursula Diop, who was involuntarily sterilized for being biracial.
Fast-paced and plot-driven. (Historical fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9781338736106
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2025
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