Themes of friendship and environmentalism combine in this magical school story.
Does Plum have what it takes to become a shape-shifting Guardian?
Raised by her grandparents since her parents died in a boating accident, Plum has spent her childhood learning about plants and animals. She hasn’t ventured far from her island home, part of the Santipap Islands, but when she is accepted into the prestigious Guardian Academy, where she will train to become a Guardian along with other children from all walks of life, her grandparents encourage her to go, certain that her future holds more than their little island can provide. At the Academy, Plum’s tendency to talk to plants and animals strikes some of the students as strange, though she also begins to make friends. In the Santipap Islands, Guardians have the power to shift into an animal shape to better protect the land, and Plum’s first test is to find her own animal shape—but will she succeed, or will she be forced to return home a failure? With a Thailand-inspired setting, magic rooted in nature and the environment, and whimsical illustrations, this is a promising beginning to a series ready to introduce readers to both the fantasy genre and a beautiful and mysterious new world. All characters are somewhat loosely implied to be Thai due to character and place names.
Themes of friendship and environmentalism combine in this magical school story. (map) (Fantasy. 7-11)Pub Date: March 7, 2023
ISBN: 9781338759150
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Dec. 23, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 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
We challenge anyone to read this and keep a straight face.
Four misunderstood villains endeavor to turn over a new leaf…or a new rap sheet in Blabey's frenzied romp.
As readers open the first page of this early chapter book, Mr. Wolf is right there to greet them, bemoaning his reputation. "Just because I've got BIG POINTY TEETH and RAZOR-SHARP CLAWS and I occasionally like to dress up like an OLD LADY, that doesn't mean… / … I'm a BAD GUY." To prove this very fact, Mr. Wolf enlists three equally slandered friends into the Good Guys Club: Mr. Snake (aka the Chicken Swallower), Mr. Piranha (aka the Butt Biter), and Mr. Shark (aka Jaws). After some convincing from Mr. Wolf, the foursome sets off determined to un-smirch their names (and reluctantly curbing their appetites). Although these predators find that not everyone is ready to be at the receiving end of their helpful efforts, they use all their Bad Guy know-how to manage a few hilarious good deeds. Blabey has hit the proverbial nail on the head, kissed it full on the mouth, and handed it a stick of Acme dynamite. With illustrations that startle in their manic comedy and deadpan direct address and with a narrative that follows four endearingly sardonic characters trying to push past (sometimes successfully) their fear-causing natures, this book instantly joins the classic ranks of Captain Underpants and The Stinky Cheese Man.
We challenge anyone to read this and keep a straight face. (Fiction. 7-11)Pub Date: Jan. 3, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-545-91240-2
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Sept. 18, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2016
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