Not revolutionary, but a considerable improvement.
These four fairy-tale retellings give traditional characters personality and agency.
Rapunzel is a maker, always building and inventing. When she decides to free herself, she calls out to a young man and asks him to tie one end of her severed braid to a tree, turning it into a zip line she can ride down to freedom. Lucy, known as Little Red Riding Hood, is a naturalist and is lured off the path to Grandma’s house only by the promise of a rare flower. Her keen observation of the wolf that sends her off-track enables her to recognize him in Grandma’s bed and outsmart him. Cinderella’s kindness extends to animals, and she sells her one remaining glass slipper to start an animal sanctuary, where the prince eventually joins her. Thumbelina nurses a sick swallow to health and in return receives a ride to her true home. Each story consists of three to five chapters. Half- or full-page monochrome illustrations in mauve on each page fit the fairy-tale theme. McFarlane does a lovely job reimagining these female leads as active, clever characters, though some of the old tropes remain (the obsession with Rapunzel’s beauty, which is based on her blue eyes and golden tresses; the ball’s purpose is still for the prince to pick a bride). Rapunzel is White; Red Riding Hood is pictured with brown skin and long, wavy hair; Cinderella and her family are White while the godmother and prince are brown. (The illustrations for “Thumbelina” were not seen.)
Not revolutionary, but a considerable improvement. (Fiction. 5-8)Pub Date: Oct. 27, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5344-7357-7
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A jam-packed opener sure to satisfy lovers of the princess genre.
Ice princess Lina must navigate family and school in this early chapter read.
The family picnic is today. This is not a typical gathering, since Lina’s maternal relatives are a royal family of Windtamers who have power over the weather and live in castles floating on clouds. Lina herself is mixed race, with black hair and a tan complexion like her Asian-presenting mother’s; her Groundling father appears to be a white human. While making a grand entrance at the castle of her grandfather, the North Wind, she fails to successfully ride a gust of wind and crashes in front of her entire family. This prompts her stern grandfather to ask that Lina move in with him so he can teach her to control her powers. Desperate to avoid this, Lina and her friend Claudia, who is black, get Lina accepted at the Hilltop Science and Arts Academy. Lina’s parents allow her to go as long as she does lessons with grandpa on Saturdays. However, fitting in at a Groundling school is rough, especially when your powers start freak winter storms! With the story unfurling in diary format, bright-pink–highlighted grayscale illustrations help move the plot along. There are slight gaps in the storytelling and the pacing is occasionally uneven, but Lina is full of spunk and promotes self-acceptance.
A jam-packed opener sure to satisfy lovers of the princess genre. (Fantasy. 5-8)Pub Date: June 25, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-338-35393-8
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: March 26, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2019
First of a tasty if not immediately nourishing new series.
When Dr. Bunsen, Gabe, Laura, and Cesar's mad-scientist neighbor, tries out his growth machine on Gabe's plastic animal toys, there's an unexpected result—they come to life.
Second-grade whiz kids Gabriel Martinez, Laura Reyes, and Cesar Moreno meet their strange neighbor while fundraising for a science-club field trip. Known to their classmates as “the Data Set,” they each have individual passions: Gabe loves animals; Laura loves to tinker and invent; Cesar loves to read and eat. There’s room for all these activities in their well-equipped treehouse. Together, their fantastic adventures will be the stuff of four titles scheduled for 2016 and aimed directly at first- and second-graders already devouring books. This episode introduces the characters, sets up the problem (the cute but rapidly growing baby animals), and finds a solution (sneak them into the zoo) in 126 fast-paced pages written with plenty of dialogue and copiously illustrated with appealing drawings. With these Latino protagonists—Cesar has dark skin and curly hair, while Laura and Gabe have lighter skin and straight hair—and a STEM-infused plot, this would seem to have been made to order for today’s elementary school students. While the emphasis is far more on plot than STEM, the kid-friendly fantasy should captivate readers, who will certainly want to gobble up the next installment. (Tantalizingly, the opening pages are included.)
First of a tasty if not immediately nourishing new series. (Adventure. 5-8)Pub Date: April 5, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4814-5729-3
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Little Simon/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Jan. 8, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2016
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