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WILLIE BEA AND THE TIME THE MARTIANS LANDED

The Martians—of Orson Welles' famous 1938 broadcast—don't just queer Willie Bea's Halloween; they pretty much shatter Hamilton's keen, affecting drama of family relations. "Oh, it was something, Willie Bea thought, Sunday time and company and Halloween begging time, all in one day and night." Across the Dayton Road, at Grand and Gramp's old homestead—protected by a "big old bluegrass lawn"—the men are in the front parlor, listening to the radio and drinking highballs; the women are in the kitchen, comfortably fixing dinner; and the children, everybody's charges, are vying for the attention of beautiful, exciting Aunt Leah—three times married, rich and generous, a fortune-teller. The scene ruptures with Mama's realization of what Willie Bea has been told by her hateful cousin Little Wing, also 12: Willie Ben's baby brother has been lured away again by Little Wing's gentle-monster brother, Big Wing—who is shooting pumpkins, with bow-and-arrow, off the compliant tot's head. Willie Bea calms Mama down—sure that Little Wing has put him up to it, convinced that "Big could not miss" . . . any more than she could lose her footing on the high crossbeam in Uncle Jimmy Wing's barn. But Willie Bea's wise papa unexpectedly makes her promise not to walk the crossbeam any more (what if her little sister imitated her?) and, at his (and Gramp's) firm insistence, Uncle Jimmy takes away Big's bow-and-arrows. The solace, for Willie Bea, is Aunt Leah's discovery of a Star of Venus in her palm: "Most fine, impossible good luck. . . . You will win the world." (Why hadn't Papa married Aunt Leah, as he might?) Back home, waiting for trick-or-treat time, Willie Bea entertains her little sister and brother with radio imitations (a wonderful, period and child-true scene); she gets them ready, in make-do costumes and (scarey-to-themselves) makeup; and, then, descending in triumph—they find Aunt Leah, glamorously attired and escorted, shireking that the world is coming to an end! What follows is mainly spook-farce and thematic manipulation—which will be read differently, moreover, by kids who've learned about the Orson Welles broadcast from the jacket (or elsewhere), and those who haven't. The family, mostly terrified, huddles at Grand and Gramp's; Willie Bea, with a cohort, sneaks off on stilts to the local farm where Martians have supposedly landed—thinking that they're actually "Venus ones," come to see her; at the farm, she takes a night-working combine for the monsters. . . falls off her stilts, gets knocked out, eventually has to acknowledge her mistake, and is consoled by Aunt Leah's assurance that, nonetheless, "anything can happen" (and by Leah's gift of a much-wanted, store-bought costume for the next Halloween). In switching to special effects and juvenile-fiction platitudes, Hamilton undercuts the resonant descriptions and emotional cross-currents of her earlier, stage-worthy naturalism. For kids, it won't be fatal; but it is too bad.

Pub Date: Oct. 17, 1983

ISBN: 0590120298

Page Count: 230

Publisher: Greenwillow Books

Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1983

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TALES FOR VERY PICKY EATERS

Broccoli: No way is James going to eat broccoli. “It’s disgusting,” says James. Well then, James, says his father, let’s consider the alternatives: some wormy dirt, perhaps, some stinky socks, some pre-chewed gum? James reconsiders the broccoli, but—milk? “Blech,” says James. Right, says his father, who needs strong bones? You’ll be great at hide-and-seek, though not so great at baseball and kickball and even tickling the dog’s belly. James takes a mouthful. So it goes through lumpy oatmeal, mushroom lasagna and slimy eggs, with James’ father parrying his son’s every picky thrust. And it is fun, because the father’s retorts are so outlandish: the lasagna-making troll in the basement who will be sent back to the rat circus, there to endure the rodent’s vicious bites; the uneaten oatmeal that will grow and grow and probably devour the dog that the boy won’t be able to tickle any longer since his bones are so rubbery. Schneider’s watercolors catch the mood of gentle ribbing, the looks of bewilderment and surrender and the deadpanned malarkey. It all makes James’ father’s last urging—“I was just going to say that you might like them if you tried them”—wholly fresh and unexpected advice. (Early reader. 5-9)

Pub Date: May 1, 2011

ISBN: 978-0-547-14956-1

Page Count: 48

Publisher: Clarion Books

Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2011

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BEYOND MULBERRY GLEN

An absorbing fantasy centered on a resilient female protagonist facing growth, change, and self-empowerment.

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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

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