Crafted from shivery supernatural elements, this fable celebrates the power of empathy and forgiveness.
Villagers believe the huge tree dominating the back garden steals young girls, but Immy, 10, convinces her parents to rent Lavender Cottage anyway.
Immy’s family left Australia so her mother, a heart surgeon, could take a job in England. Immy knows clinical depression has left her general-practitioner father unable to work, but she finds it hard to be understanding when he loudly disparages village beliefs to local kids (including Caitlyn, whose parents own the cottage) and she’s hit with the angry backlash. Jean, an elderly neighbor, is concerned to learn Immy will soon turn 11; she too fears the tree was responsible for two girls’ disappearances—one was her best friend—on the eves of their 11th birthdays. While sensing the tree’s malevolence, Immy’s increasingly fascinated by it and the eerie rhymes she can’t get out of her head. At school she’s an outsider; at home, she’s increasingly impatient with her dad, whose depression continues. When his gardening efforts accidentally injure a mama hedgehog, Jean saves it and helps guide Immy to its hoglets. Although caring for the healing family brings Immy and her dad closer, the tree’s sullen anger only worsens, conveyed with delicate, measured effectiveness as Immy’s birthday approaches. These rounded, engaging characters (they default to white), compassionately drawn, lend depth to the spookily enjoyable plot.
Crafted from shivery supernatural elements, this fable celebrates the power of empathy and forgiveness. (Fantasy. 8-11)Pub Date: July 14, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5362-0761-3
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: May 2, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
A wild romp that champions making space for vulnerable creatures and each other.
A boy with ADHD explores nature and himself.
Eleven-year-old Jake Rizzi just wants to be seen as “normal”; he blames his brain for leading him into trouble and making him do things that annoy his peers and even his own parents. Case in point: He’s stuck spending a week in rural Oregon with an aunt he barely knows while his parents go on vacation. Jake’s reluctance changes as he learns about the town’s annual festival, during which locals search for a fabled turtle. But news of this possibly undiscovered species has spread. Although Aunt Hettle insists to Jake that it’s only folklore, the fame-hungry convene, sure that the Ruby-Backed Turtle is indeed real—just as Jake discovers is the case. Keeping its existence secret is critical to protecting the rare creature from a poacher and others with ill intentions. Readers will keep turning pages to find out how Jake and new friend Mia will foil the caricatured villains. Along the way, Bramucci packs in teachable moments around digital literacy, mindfulness, and ecological interdependence, along with the message that “the only way to protect the natural world is to love it.” Jake’s inner monologue elucidates the challenges and benefits of ADHD as well as practical coping strategies. Whether or not readers share Jake’s diagnosis, they’ll empathize with his insecurities. Jake and his family present white; Mia is Black, and names of secondary characters indicate some ethnic diversity.
A wild romp that champions making space for vulnerable creatures and each other. (Adventure. 8-11)Pub Date: Oct. 3, 2023
ISBN: 9781547607020
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
A fine emotional stretch within reach of the intended audience.
When siblings Jessie and Evan (The Lemonade War, 2007, and The Lemonade Crime, 2011) accompany their mother on the time-honored midwinter holiday visit to their grandmother’s home in the mountains, the changes are alarming.
Fire damage to the house and Grandma’s inability to recognize Evan are as disquieting as the disappearance of the iron bell, hung long ago by their grandmother on Lowell Hill and traditionally rung at the New Year. Davies keeps a tight focus on the children: Points of view switch between Evan, with his empathetic and emotional approach to understanding his world, and Jessie, for whom routine is essential and change a puzzle to be worked out. When Grandma ventures out into the snow just before twilight, it is Evan who realizes the danger and manages to find a way to rescue her. Jessie, determined to solve the mystery of the missing bell, enlists the help of Grandma's young neighbor Maxwell, with his unusual habitual gestures and his surprising ability to solve jigsaw puzzles. She is unprepared, however, for the terror of seeing the neighbor boys preparing a mechanical torture device to tear a live frog to pieces. Each of the siblings brings a personal resilience and heroism to the resolution.
A fine emotional stretch within reach of the intended audience. (Fiction. 8-11)Pub Date: May 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-547-56737-2
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: March 13, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2012
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