A frothy, occasionally scattered series starter to introduce the wide, entertaining mythological world.
Norse mythology is rewoven into a boarding school story starring the Vanir “girlgoddess of love and beauty,” Freya.
Freya’s unhappy about transferring away from her school and friends in Vanaheim to Odin’s new Asgard Academy, to which he’s summoning chosen students from all nine worlds on Yggdrasil. Freya’s special magic involves prophecies given by Brising, her jewel—which she drops and loses during the arrival chaos. She’s also uncomfortable because Vanaheim and Asgard were recently at war, a war supposedly caused by her missing nanny, Gullveig, and which has left Asgard’s wall destroyed. There is a lot going on. Prankster Loki exploits Mason, a fellow student who has a crush on Freya, by peer-pressuring Freya into a bet: If scrawny Mason rebuilds the wall in three days without help, Freya will give Mason her heart, the sun, and the moon. But Mason has some tricks up his sleeves. When not in class or sneaking off to recover Brising from dwarves, Freya’s overcoming suspicions and making friends with kids from other worlds, especially her Aesir roommates, and she learns that her true gift is friendship. (In one puntastic storyline the girls brainstorm a name for their group before landing on the series title, Thunder Girls.) Peacemaking is important, both between Gullveig and Odin and between Freya and Mason. The book assumes a white default.
A frothy, occasionally scattered series starter to introduce the wide, entertaining mythological world. (authors’ note, further reading) (Fantasy. 8-12)Pub Date: May 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4814-9640-7
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: March 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often...
A successful juvenile by the beloved New Yorker writer portrays a farm episode with an imaginative twist that makes a poignant, humorous story of a pig, a spider and a little girl.
Young Fern Arable pleads for the life of runt piglet Wilbur and gets her father to sell him to a neighbor, Mr. Zuckerman. Daily, Fern visits the Zuckermans to sit and muse with Wilbur and with the clever pen spider Charlotte, who befriends him when he is lonely and downcast. At the news of Wilbur's forthcoming slaughter, campaigning Charlotte, to the astonishment of people for miles around, spins words in her web. "Some Pig" comes first. Then "Terrific"—then "Radiant". The last word, when Wilbur is about to win a show prize and Charlotte is about to die from building her egg sac, is "Humble". And as the wonderful Charlotte does die, the sadness is tempered by the promise of more spiders next spring.
The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often informative as amusing, and the whole tenor of appealing wit and pathos will make fine entertainment for reading aloud, too.Pub Date: Oct. 15, 1952
ISBN: 978-0-06-026385-0
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1952
PERSPECTIVES
SEEN & HEARD
A real gem.
A 10-year old girl learns to adjust to a strange town, makes some fascinating friends, and fills the empty space in her heart thanks to a big old stray dog in this lyrical, moving, and enchanting book by a fresh new voice.
India Opal’s mama left when she was only three, and her father, “the preacher,” is absorbed in his own loss and in the work of his new ministry at the Open-Arms Baptist Church of Naomi [Florida]. Enter Winn-Dixie, a dog who “looked like a big piece of old brown carpet that had been left out in the rain.” But, this dog had a grin “so big that it made him sneeze.” And, as Opal says, “It’s hard not to immediately fall in love with a dog who has a good sense of humor.” Because of Winn-Dixie, Opal meets Miss Franny Block, an elderly lady whose papa built her a library of her own when she was just a little girl and she’s been the librarian ever since. Then, there’s nearly blind Gloria Dump, who hangs the empty bottle wreckage of her past from the mistake tree in her back yard. And, Otis, oh yes, Otis, whose music charms the gerbils, rabbits, snakes and lizards he’s let out of their cages in the pet store. Brush strokes of magical realism elevate this beyond a simple story of friendship to a well-crafted tale of community and fellowship, of sweetness, sorrow and hope. And, it’s funny, too.
A real gem. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: March 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-7636-0776-2
Page Count: 182
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2000
SEEN & HEARD
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