Nonstop action and plenty of heart create a story worth escaping into.
Magic awaits around every corner in Zafa.
Pilar Ramirez grew up hearing stories of the Dominican boogeyman El Cuco—alongside accounts of dictator Rafael Trujillo, whose ruthlessness forced her abuela to flee the country with Mami long before Pilar was born. A sharp-tongued resident of Chicago living in a neighborhood that seems to be gentrifying overnight, Pilar aspires to be a documentary filmmaker and share untold stories of silenced voices, including that of her cousin Natasha, who vanished in 1957 during the Trujillo regime. Pilar can’t believe her luck when Lorena, her annoyingly perfect college student sister, arranges for her to interview a sociology professor who happens to be studying missing persons from this era. Pilar arrives at the professor’s office, notices a file folder with her missing cousin’s name on it, and before you can blink an ojo, she is magically pulled into the file and whisked away to the supernatural island of Zafa. Pilar must team up with its scrappy, otherworldly inhabitants to unravel the mystery of Natasha’s disappearance and help save the island from dark forces. Spanish words and phrases are woven into the English text in ways that enhance the character development and anchor the Dominican culture that permeates the story. Pilar’s humorous, authentically tweenage voice shines as she makes astute observations about the world around her.
Nonstop action and plenty of heart create a story worth escaping into. (Adventure. 9-13)Pub Date: March 1, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-250-77410-1
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Dec. 6, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
A pleasing premise for book lovers.
A fantasy-loving bookworm makes a wonderful, terrible bargain.
When sixth grader Poppy Woodlock’s historic preservationist parents move the family to the Oregon coast to work on the titular stately home, Poppy’s sure she’ll find magic. Indeed, the exiled water nymph in the manor’s ruined swimming pool grants a wish, but: “Magic isn’t free. It cosssts.” The price? Poppy’s favorite book, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. In return she receives Sampson, a winged lion cub who is everything Poppy could have hoped for. But she soon learns that the nymph didn’t take just her own physical book—she erased Narnia from Poppy’s world. And it’s just the first loss: Soon, Poppy’s grandmother’s journal’s gone, then The Odyssey, and more. The loss is heartbreaking, but Sampson’s a wonderful companion, particularly as Poppy’s finding middle school a tough adjustment. Hartman’s premise is beguiling—plenty of readers will identify with Poppy, both as a fellow bibliophile and as a kid struggling to adapt. Poppy’s repeatedly expressed faith that unveiling Sampson will bring some sort of vindication wears thin, but that does not detract from the central drama. It’s a pity that the named real-world books Poppy reads are notably lacking in diversity; a story about the power of literature so limited in imagination lets both itself and readers down. Main characters are cued White; there is racial diversity in the supporting cast. Chapters open with atmospheric spot art. (This review has been updated to reflect the final illustrations.)
A pleasing premise for book lovers. (Fantasy. 9-12)Pub Date: May 2, 2023
ISBN: 9780316448222
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2023
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
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