A modern blended family story with a sprinkling of magic.
Winnie and her mom’s “two girls against the world” life changes when Mom decides to marry Jeff, giving Winnie a stepdad and a younger brother she doesn’t want.
Eleven-year-old Winnie sees the world through a fairy-tale lens thanks to her mom’s job as a literature professor. Writing in her notebook, Winnie casts herself as a princess and her mother as a queen; she does not want an evil stepfather. But Winnie’s anxiety—which she’s named Eustace Clarence Scrubb—causes her to see monsters where there are none, and her fear often turns to anger and causes her to lash out at Jeff’s son and even new friends like her neighbor and schoolmate Abigail. But when Winnie discovers magic in their neighborhood, she shares the secret with Abigail, who tries to help her craft the perfect wish to fix her situation. Hill enables readers to see deeply into Winnie, including her past, fears, anger, wishes, and the way she perceives her own story. Though the book is told in the first person, other characters’ true natures are clear through their words and actions, and secondary characters, such as grouchy older neighbor Tom Bailey, have their own stories. Hill’s writing is full of poetic references readers will recognize, as when Winnie feels “like the oldest sibling in a fairy tale where only third children ever win.” The few physical descriptions present point to a White cast.
A modern blended family story with a sprinkling of magic. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2023
ISBN: 9781635923179
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Astra Young Readers
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2023
However the compelling fitness of theme and event and the apt but unexpected imagery (the opening sentences compare the...
At a time when death has become an acceptable, even voguish subject in children's fiction, Natalie Babbitt comes through with a stylistic gem about living forever.
Protected Winnie, the ten-year-old heroine, is not immortal, but when she comes upon young Jesse Tuck drinking from a secret spring in her parents' woods, she finds herself involved with a family who, having innocently drunk the same water some 87 years earlier, haven't aged a moment since. Though the mood is delicate, there is no lack of action, with the Tucks (previously suspected of witchcraft) now pursued for kidnapping Winnie; Mae Tuck, the middle aged mother, striking and killing a stranger who is onto their secret and would sell the water; and Winnie taking Mae's place in prison so that the Tucks can get away before she is hanged from the neck until....? Though Babbitt makes the family a sad one, most of their reasons for discontent are circumstantial and there isn't a great deal of wisdom to be gleaned from their fate or Winnie's decision not to share it.
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1975
ISBN: 0312369816
Page Count: 164
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: April 13, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1975
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
BOOK REVIEW
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