A playful and educational time-travel adventure.
An imaginative girl learns about her ancestors in this middle-grade fantasy.
Sixth grader Sky lives in Quebec City, Canada, with her parents. When her Papa, a policeman, loses his job, the family must move to her grandfather’s farmhouse. Sky hates the idea of leaving her friends and being home-schooled and refuses to go. Nevertheless, the family arrives at the farmhouse. Grandpa Doc helps her settle into her new room with her prized possessions, including Hoppy, her stuffed bunny. He promises to show Sky her great-grandma Stella’s observatory, perfect for stargazing in the country. He further cheers her up with a coin that spins to reveal “tiny galaxies made up of teeny-tiny stars and planets.” He then asks: “Real or magic, Sky?” Before dinner, the girl explores the outdoors. She and Hoppy find a stone potting shed covered in thickets. The door says “Do Not Enter.” She imagines the shed is a castle, with an adjacent stream as the moat, guarded by a dragon. The magic word unlock allows Sky inside the shed, where she finds a candlestick telephone. Miraculously, a phone operator promises to connect her to someone named Lune. Lune is a girl living in the Pyrenees region of France 50,000 years in Sky’s past. Lune’s relatives are the Tainted Ones, who are subjugated by Loch, king of the Powerful Ones. Loch hears the Full Moon speak, and it wants him to punish the Tainted Ones, who have Tall Tribe ancestry. Will Loch sacrifice Lune’s family before a hero can intervene?
Stokely aims to introduce middle-grade audiences to the Ice Age and narrative flexibility in this fantasy adventure series opener. The issue of whether something is real or magic—part of Sky’s reality or imagination—brings joy to the proceedings. Hoppy often talks to Sky, offering a unique perspective. For example, the rabbit says, “That was a huge dragon!”—though Sky believes it’s the size of a “small dog.” When she’s transported to the past, she returns wearing a bracelet, a detail that sharp readers will find noteworthy. At the other end of the imaginative spectrum, Loch hears the Full Moon and justifies his evil, but the tribal Medicine Man knows he’s mentally ill. The author expounds on this later when Sky wonders if “something happened” to Loch “and he turned evil?” While the prose moves swiftly, moments of beauty linger, as when Sky explores a cave beneath a frozen lake: “The sunlight was trapped—endlessly bouncing from the clear, fresh flowing water below to the icy ceiling that soared high above. The whole place was illuminated with a turquoise glow.” There are scary moments, too, as when Sky stumbles into gory animal heads hanging from a tree. Overall, Stokely whets young readers’ appetites regarding humanity’s origin as tool users without eclipsing the story. And if modern humans resulted from the sometimes-violent merging of ancient tribes, Grandpa Doc reminds Sky that “out of most battles, something wonderful happens that would have never happened otherwise.” Rosalind’s detailed black and white illustrations jubilantly punctuate the tale.
A playful and educational time-travel adventure.Pub Date: Oct. 22, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-73557-850-7
Page Count: 218
Publisher: Kari\Stokely
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
BOOK REVIEW
An absorbing fantasy centered on a resilient female protagonist facing growth, change, and self-empowerment.
In Florence’s middle-grade fantasy novel, a young girl’s heart is tested in the face of an evil, spreading Darkness.
Eleven-year-old Lydia, “freckle-cheeked and round-eyed, with hair the color of pine bark and fair skin,” is struggling with the knowledge that she has reached the age to apprentice as an herbalist. Lydia is reluctant to leave her beloved, magical Mulberry Glen and her cozy Housetree in the woods—she’ll miss Garder, the Glen’s respected philosopher; her fairy guardian Pit; her human friend Livy; and even the mischievous part-elf, part-imp, part-human twins Zale and Zamilla. But the twins go missing after hearing of a soul-sapping Darkness that has swallowed a forest and is creeping into minds and engulfing entire towns. They have secretly left to find a rare fruit that, it is said, will stop the Darkness if thrown into the heart of the mountain that rises out of the lethal forest. Lydia follows, determined to find the twins before they, too, fall victim to the Darkness. During her journey, accompanied by new friends, she gradually realizes that she herself has a dangerous role to play in the quest to stop the Darkness. In this well-crafted fantasy, Florence skillfully equates the physical manifestation of Darkness with the feelings of insecurity and powerlessness that Lydia first struggles with when thinking of leaving the Glen. Such negative thoughts grow more intrusive the closer she and her friends come to the Darkness—and to Lydia’s ultimate, powerfully rendered test of character, which leads to a satisfyingly realistic, not quite happily-ever-after ending. Highlights include a delightfully haunting, reality-shifting library and a deft sprinkling of Latin throughout the text; Pit’s pet name for Lydia is mea flosculus (“my little flower”). Fine-lined ink drawings introducing each chapter add a pleasing visual element to this well-grounded fairy tale.
An absorbing fantasy centered on a resilient female protagonist facing growth, change, and self-empowerment.Pub Date: Jan. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9781956393095
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Waxwing Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 14, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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