An imaginative, well-told story with a hero who believably discovers her better self.
A magical dress leads a beautiful but selfish princess on a life-changing adventure in Small’s middle-grade fantasy novel.
In the fairy-tale–like kingdom of Cygnia, lovely, vain, self-centered Princess Zarina wants the “most beautiful dress ever” for her birthday gala. Ignoring warnings that hordes of plundering raiders threaten the kingdom (“I am entitled to my special day,” she pouts), Zarina travels to a cottage deep in the forest where a gifted dressmaker named Mydori is reputed to live. Ignoring Zarina’s rudeness and seeming to acquiesce to her imperious demands for a golden ball gown, the mysterious Mydori instead fits the princess into a sumptuous, tightly laced, black gown. It is a magical “storytelling dress,” the seamstress explains, and before leaving Zarina alone in the forest, she cautions her that the amount of magic in the dress is limited, that it “must be used to benefit others,” and that, when it is gone, Zarina’s fate will have been determined. The dressmaker’s cottage disappears, the woods deepen around Zarina, and she is left to try to find her way home on foot, clad in the black gown that she can’t loosen or remove no matter how hard she tries. The author doesn’t let Zarina off lightly, deftly expressing her redemptive journey through the woods with lessons in humility (hunger, discomfort, and remediated disdain for the poor), painful revelations (the ill treatment of the peasantry under the king’s brutal overseer), a dire prophecy of loss, and dangerous conflict. Small conveys the magical nature of the gown through vivid imagery; as the magic dissipates, the garment gradually sheds bits of tulle, sequins, and beads. And although the deaths of certain characters close to Zarina seem a bit gratuitous, it rings true that the insights Zarina gains through adversity render her capable of a powerful act of selfless courage. Dorman’s three full-page, black-and-white illustrations are a welcome addition, depicting Zarina’s gown, alive with dancing fire fairies; dungeon guards bound with spiderwebs; and Zarina on horseback, racing away from a deadly pursuit. This refreshing debut is a well-crafted fantasy, nearly pitch-perfect in the cautionary fairy tale tradition.
An imaginative, well-told story with a hero who believably discovers her better self.Pub Date: March 6, 2023
ISBN: 9798987444023
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Carousel Acres Publishing
Review Posted Online: March 30, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The residents of the small Mexican town of El Rosario don’t quite know what to make of Mr. Mendoza and his omnipresent paintbrush. Is he merely a vandal, spreading snippets of esoteric nonsense around town with a few strokes of his brush? Or an overlooked philosopher who has explanations for life’s greatest mysteries? The self-described Mexican King of Graffiti, Mendoza spares no one the mischievous spitfire of his brush—neither El Rosario’s residents nor God Himself. When a series of unfortunate incidents befall the town—from the devastating storm that rains down corpses to the mine collapse that drags large swaths of town into a gaping abyss—Mendoza is there with paint-dripped commentary, urging residents to investigate the nature of life itself. Urrea’s delightful tale of morality and meaning is rendered masterfully by Cardinale’s boisterous illustrations, their bold outlines providing heft to the surrealism. This tale, in their steady hands, becomes a cheeky tour through elements of Latin pop culture: Hints of Romero’s horrors, Rivera’s aesthetics and García Márquez’s magical realism all make their appearance here. An enchanting exploration of life’s myriad mysteries. (Graphic fiction. 13 & up)
Pub Date: May 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-933693-23-1
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Cinco Puntos Press
Review Posted Online: Nov. 30, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2010
Blackwood goes from Elizabethan England (Shakespeare Stealer, not reviewed, 1998) to a Depression-Era Ozarks setting for this poker-faced tale of a self-reliant but naive teenager. Although he and his mother are dirt poor and he doesn’t remember his father, Thad is an optimist; he has a girl, a loyal bluetick hound, and a good if risky source of income, selling corn liquor for Dayman, a sour, one-armed recluse with a hidden still. He begins to get a glimmer of other lives and possibilities when Harlan James comes to town, claiming to be a land scout for tobacco growers. Harlan is well-dressed, a free spender, and free with his time, too; he allows Thad to use his fancy tackle to land a huge catfish, teaches him how to use a rifle, and even loans him clothes for a date. Blackwood knits characters together with threads of “moonshine”—not liquor, but a steady diet of stories, jokes, yarns, and outright lies’so that the story becomes a study in layers and varieties of honesty. Thad’s feeling of betrayal is sharp but brief when he finds out that Harlan is a revenue agent, stalking Dayman’s still, which literally explodes in his face. Blackwood drops plenty of hints that both Harlan and Dayman are more than they seem, so alert readers are always ahead of Thad, which adds drama; the twin revelations that Dayman is Thad’s father and that Harlan’s friendliness wasn’t all moonshine close this backwoods bildungsroman on a high note. (Fiction. 11-13)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-7614-5056-4
Page Count: 158
Publisher: Marshall Cavendish
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1999
BOOK REVIEW
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