Despite some contradictory plot details, a message of empathy is delivered with quirky charm.
In Allen’s chapter book, a little basement-dwelling monster hopes to find acceptance in the human world.
There’s a secret in the basement of the 150-year-old Marymount Mansion, and only the septuagenarian owner, Celeste, knows what it is: families of monsters live there. Celeste is their friend, keeping them safe from discovery (they do attend her Halloween party every year, since her guests assume they’re wearing costumes). But 8-year-old monster Toby, who has “furry green skin” and smells like cotton candy, wants to see more of the world outside the basement. (Goodwin’s cartoony black-and-white spot illustrations accompany the text here and there, with Toby depicted as a bucket-shaped figure with froggy eyes and skinny legs.) There are a few inconsistencies in its messaging, but this fantasy story offers a fanciful and compassionate approach to being “different.” Young readers will root for the courageous Toby as curiosity about the human world drives his quest to be free to be himself there, convinced that “we should be able to get along with others who aren’t exactly like us.” His courage and curiosity lead to him befriending a huge, lonely monster, so different that he even scares other monsters, and to an outing trick-or-treating and fitting in with costumed human kids. The narrative balances Toby’s good experiences with a scary encounter with a teenage human bully, followed by the little monster’s confidence-building realization that humans have many differences, too, from skin colors to the glasses some of them wear and the way they dress. Celeste is a bit problematic in her role as the monsters’ affectionate protector: She brings them cookies, considers them family, and attends their weddings and births, yet leaves their basement home “dark and dank” and short on “elbow room” (elsewhere, the basement is inconsistently described as big enough to have areas that Toby’s family never explored, including the lair of Toby’s sad, giant monster friend).
Despite some contradictory plot details, a message of empathy is delivered with quirky charm.Pub Date: Oct. 10, 2023
ISBN: 9780996102940
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Asd Publishing
Review Posted Online: Nov. 14, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
The young folk and (of course) the animals are engagingly wrought in this tale with a strong ecological message.
An orphan loner’s small town faces a hard future after it unwittingly disrupts a natural cycle.
Willodeen is lucky that elderly retired thespians Mae and Birdie took her in after the wildfire that killed her parents and brother, not only because they’re a loving couple, but because they let her roam the woods in search of increasingly rare screechers—creatures so vile-tempered and stinky that the village elders of Perchance have put a bounty on them. The elders have other worries, though: The migratory hummingbears that have long nested in the area, drawing tourists to the lucrative annual Autumn Faire, have likewise nearly vanished. Could there be a connection? If there is, Willodeen is just the person to find it—but who would believe her? Applegate’s characters speak in pronouncements about life and nature that sometimes seem to address readers more than other characters, but the winsome illustrations lighten the thematic load. Screechers appear much like comically fierce warthogs and hummingbears, as small teddies with wings. Applegate traces a burgeoning friendship between her traumatized protagonist and Connor, a young artist who turns found materials into small animals so realistic that one actually comes to life. In the end, the townsfolk do listen and pitch in to make amends. Red-haired, gray-eyed Willodeen is cued as White; Connor has brown skin, and other human characters read as White by default.
The young folk and (of course) the animals are engagingly wrought in this tale with a strong ecological message. (Eco-fantasy. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 7, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-250-14740-0
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: July 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2021
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