Close to enchanting but not quite.
A friendship-focused modern fairy tale in an idyllic seaside village.
One night each year, on the Mermaid Moon festival, sea creatures float through the picturesque town of Merporth, frolicking alongside the cheerful villagers. Merrin, a light-skinned mermaid whose long red hair may invite comparisons to Disney’s Ariel, is at last old enough to join the other creatures, and she can’t wait to go to her best friend Molly’s house. Molly, a light-skinned, brown-haired human, often visits Merrin, diving underwater or sitting with her by the sea, but tonight will be different. With an emphasis on camaraderie, this tale sees Merrin having a fun night out with Molly. Paragraphs of text in a small black font make this an option for a slightly older or more patient audience. Mixed-media art shimmers, with appealing blue-greens bringing to life Merrin’s sea home and deep blues depicting the sky on the night of the Mermaid Moon festival. Still, the story lulls overall, with only one brief conflict—it seems Merrin may not make it back to the sea before “the moon’s reflection disappears from the sea,” which would spell death for her cove’s magic. The solution is creative yet too swiftly and neatly found to satisfy readers. Molly is an uncomplicated character, defined by her love of Merrin, evidenced by jars of sea ephemera in her bedroom. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Close to enchanting but not quite. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Oct. 4, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-984896-56-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Anne Schwartz/Random
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A surprisingly nuanced lesson set in confidence-building, easy-to-decode text.
A unicorn learns a friendship lesson in this chapter-book series opener.
Unicorn Bo has friends but longs for a “bestie.” Luckily, a new unicorn pops into existence (literally: Unicorns appear on especially starry nights) and joins Bo at the Sparklegrove School for Unicorns, where they study things like unicorn magic. Each unicorn has a special power; Bo’s is granting wishes. Not knowing what his own might be distresses new unicorn Sunny. When the week’s assignment is to earn a patch by using their unicorn powers to help someone, Bo hopes Sunny will wish to know Bo's power (enabling both unicorns to complete the task, and besides, Bo enjoys Sunny’s company and wants to help him). But when the words come out wrong, Sunny thinks Bo was feigning friendship to get to grant a wish and earn a patch, setting up a fairly sophisticated conflict. Bo makes things up to Sunny, and then—with the unicorns friends again and no longer trying to force their powers—arising circumstances enable them to earn their patches. The cheerful illustrations feature a sherbet palette, using patterns for texture; on busy pages with background colors similar to the characters’ color schemes, this combines with the absence of outlines to make discerning some individual characters a challenge. The format, familiar to readers of Elliott’s Owl Diaries series, uses large print and speech bubbles to keep pages to a manageable amount of text.
A surprisingly nuanced lesson set in confidence-building, easy-to-decode text. (Fantasy. 5-8)Pub Date: Dec. 26, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-338-32332-0
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Sept. 28, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2019
A beautiful adventure about embracing both sides of one’s heritage.
A parent spins a bedtime story that takes a biracial child on a cross-cultural journey.
Donning a cloak and sturdy boots, the protagonist enters a lush autumn forest, venturing past “mischievous hobgoblins” and “glowing will-o’-the-wisps.” The pages are richly detailed, framed with decorative borders in a palette that is reminiscent of European fairy-tale illustrations with a touch of art nouveau. In a small thatched-roof cottage, the child encounters a White-presenting wise woman who describes dragons as “fearsome and fiery creatures” that hoard treasure and defeat knights. After learning this, the young adventurer slips into another forest, one with sumptuous, flowing ink illustrations in the style of traditional Chinese landscape paintings. Guided by the footprints of nine-tailed foxes and the advice of a white rabbit who lives on the moon, the child reaches the palace of a Chinese-presenting wise woman. In this realm, dragons are described as “majestic creatures of air and fire” who “rule in the skies and rivers” and control the rain. The Chinese-presenting parent ends the tale by noting that both worlds, though distinctly different, exist within the child and are open to be explored—and that “two wise grandmothers await / to share with you / their truth about dragons.” The book feels a little message-heavy, but it’s nevertheless a much-needed celebration of intergenerational storytelling and biracial identity. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A beautiful adventure about embracing both sides of one’s heritage. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Aug. 15, 2023
ISBN: 9781250820587
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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